Military Spending,Conflict and External Debt in Sub-Saharan Africa

The damaging economic effects of the debt crises on Africa in the late 1980s encouraged considerable research on the determinants of external debt in developing economies. Although sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) debt was cut by two-thirds by 2008, through two debt relief programmes, debt in the region has since been rising at an increasingly rapid pace. This study provides an empirical analysis of the determinants of external debt in SSA over the period 1960–2016, using dynamic panel methods. It also considers two potentially important factors that have received relatively little attention. One is military spending, rarely considered, despite a number of well-publicised scandals over the procurement of unnecessary and expensive high-tech weapons systems. A second, is the possibility that the countries studied have been involved in conflict. The empirical results point to a positive impact of military spending on external debt, but with some evidence of heterogeneity across the countries. Furthermore, findings indicate that the positive effect of military expenditure on debt becomes more marked in countries that have been affected by conflict. These results imply that policies to improve security and reduce military spending could be beneficial in reducing external debt and, potentially, improving economic performance in the region.     

Cell structure of microcellular combustible object foamed by supercritical carbon dioxide

In order to solve the issue that the combustible objects for cased telescoped ammunition (CTA) didn't burn completely during the combustion process, the microcellular combustible objects were foamed with numerous cells in the micron order to improve the combustion performance by the supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO₂) foaming technology. As the cell structure determined the combustion properties of microcellular combustible objects, the solubility of SCCO₂ dissolved into the combustible objects was obtained from the gravimetric method, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) was applied to characterize the cell structure under various process conditions of solubility, foaming temperature and foaming time. SEM images indicate that the cell diameter of microcellular combustible objects is in the level of 1 μm and the cell density is about 10¹¹ cell⋅cm⁻³. The microcellular combustible objects fabricated by the SCCO₂ foaming technology are smooth and uniform, and the high specific surface area of cell structure can lead to the significant combustion performance of microcellular combustible object for CTA in the future.     

The building evacuation problem with shared information

In this article, the Building Evacuation Problem with Shared Information (BEPSI) is formulated as a mixed integer linear program, where the objective is to determine the set of routes along which to send evacuees (supply) from multiple locations throughout a building (sources) to the exits (sinks) such that the total time until all evacuees reach the exits is minimized. The formulation explicitly incorporates the constraints of shared information in providing online instructions to evacuees, ensuring that evacuees departing from an intermediate or source location at a mutual point in time receive common instructions. Arc travel time and capacity, as well as supply at the nodes, are permitted to vary with time and capacity is assumed to be recaptured over time. The BEPSI is shown to be NP‐hard. An exact technique based on Benders decomposition is proposed for its solution. Computational results from numerical experiments on a real‐world network representing a four‐story building are given. Results of experiments employing Benders cuts generated in solving a given problem instance as initial cuts in addressing an updated problem instance are also provided. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

Estimating failure time distribution and its parameters based on intermediate data from a Wiener degradation model

Instead of measuring a Wiener degradation or performance process at predetermined time points to track degradation or performance of a product for estimating its lifetime, we propose to obtain the first‐passage times of the process over certain nonfailure thresholds. Based on only these intermediate data, we obtain the uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator and uniformly most accurate confidence interval for the mean lifetime. For estimating the lifetime distribution function, we propose a modified maximum likelihood estimator and a new estimator and prove that, by increasing the sample size of the intermediate data, these estimators and the above‐mentioned estimator of the mean lifetime can achieve the same levels of accuracy as the estimators assuming one has failure times. Thus, our method of using only intermediate data is useful for highly reliable products when their failure times are difficult to obtain. Furthermore, we show that the proposed new estimator of the lifetime distribution function is more accurate than the standard and modified maximum likelihood estimators. We also obtain approximate confidence intervals for the lifetime distribution function and its percentiles. Finally, we use light‐emitting diodes as an example to illustrate our method and demonstrate how to validate the Wiener assumption during the testing. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

基于工作流的GIS服务动态聚合方法、技术体系和参考模型研究

基于GIS服务的特点和动态服务聚合的应用实际,提出了一种基于工作流的GIS服务动态聚合实现方法,该方法通过引入服务群的概念,有效适应了GIS服务的动态变化性;提出了基于工作流的GIS服务聚合技术体系,界定了GIS服务聚合的研究内容和层次关系,为GIS服务动态聚合关键技术的研究提供了总体框架和顶层指导;参考工作流的研究成果,提出了动态服务聚合参考模型DSCRM,为开发聚合服务支撵平台以及在此基础上构造特定的服务聚合应用提供了可参考的计算模型.给出了一个GIS服务聚合应用实例来说明工作的可行性和有效性.     

Dynamic inventory management with cash flow constraints

In this article, we consider a classic dynamic inventory control problem of a self‐financing retailer who periodically replenishes its stock from a supplier and sells it to the market. The replenishment decisions of the retailer are constrained by cash flow, which is updated periodically following purchasing and sales in each period. Excess demand in each period is lost when insufficient inventory is in stock. The retailer's objective is to maximize its expected terminal wealth at the end of the planning horizon. We characterize the optimal inventory control policy and present a simple algorithm for computing the optimal policies for each period. Conditions are identified under which the optimal control policies are identical across periods. We also present comparative statics results on the optimal control policy. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2008     

考虑扩散效应圆形隧洞热弹性耦合动力响应研究

利用S-H热弹性扩散的基本理论,研究了无限弹性介质中圆形隧洞表面受随时间变化的热冲击的动力响应问题.采用直接求解方法以避免势函数的引入,利用Laplace变换技术,求解热、力、化学耦合控制方程,获得了弹性介质中温度梯度、位移、应力和化学势的积分形式解.最后,利用Laplace逆变换得到数值结果,分析了热、力、化学耦合条件下弹性介质中温度梯度、应力、位移和化学势响应的分布规律.     

一种改进方位向非线性CS大斜视角SAR成像算法

大斜视角SAR成像时存在严重的距离走动现象,慢时域的距离走动校正在解决这一问题同时导致了聚焦深度问题.分析了二维频域解耦合后残余相位误差以及时域走动校正后的多普勒调频率误差,提出一种改进的方位向非线性CS算法,校正了三次以上距离迁徙带来的相位误差,同时采用改进非线性CS扰动方程补偿了随方位偏移量线性变化的调频率误差.仿真结果表明,改进算法的大斜视角大场景成像性能优于传统的高分辨大斜视角成像算法.     

一类装甲车辆对不平路面的激励响应模型

研究内容为(轮式、履带)车辆在不平路面行驶和通过障碍时的平顺性问题。利用状态方程法建立了包括随机和确定路面轮廓、3维车体等较为通用的车辆行驶平顺性模型。并针对行驶振动中车轮与悬架的碰撞建立了专门模型。对某型装甲车辆进行了计算机仿真和验证,对模型的精度和有效性进行检验和评估。结果表明所建立的车辆-地面系统模型是有效的。该模型和建模采用的方法为装甲车辆的系统设计和动力学分析提供了一条途径。