Optimal inventory and dynamic admission policies for a retailer of seasonal products with affiliate programs and drop‐shipping

This article investigates the optimal inventory and admission policies for a “Clicks‐and‐Bricks” retailer of seasonal products that, in addition to selling through its own physical and online stores, also sells through third‐party websites by means of affiliate programs. Through postings on partners' webpages, an affiliate program allows a retailer to attract customers who would otherwise be missed. However, this retailer needs to pay a commission for each sale that originates from the website operators participating in the program. The retailer may also refer online orders to other sources (such as distributors and manufacturers) for fulfillment through a drop‐shipping agreement and thus earns commissions. This would be an option when, for example, the inventories at the physical stores were running low. Therefore, during the selling horizon, the retailer needs to dynamically control the opening/closing of affiliate programs and decide on the fulfillment option for online orders. On the basis of a discrete‐time dynamic programming model, the optimal admission policy of the retailer is investigated in this paper, and the structural properties of the revenue function are characterized. Numerical examples are given to show the revenue impact of optimal admission control. The optimal initial stocking decisions at the physical stores are also studied. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2009     

Online process mean estimation using L1 norm exponential smoothing

A basic assumption in process mean estimation is that all process data are clean. However, many sensor system measurements are often corrupted with outliers. Outliers are observations that do not follow the statistical distribution of the bulk of the data and consequently may lead to erroneous results with respect to statistical analysis and process control. Robust estimators of the current process mean are crucial to outlier detection, data cleaning, process monitoring, and other process features. This article proposes an outlier‐resistant mean estimator based on the L₁ norm exponential smoothing (L₁‐ES) method. The L₁‐ES statistic is essentially model‐free and demonstrably superior to existing estimators. It has the following advantages: (1) it captures process dynamics (e.g., autocorrelation), (2) it is resistant to outliers, and (3) it is easy to implement. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 2009     

基于神经网络信息融合技术的卫星定姿算法

姿态确定系统是卫星姿态控制系统中的重要组成部分,卫星姿态确定的精度直接影响卫星控制精度.为得到高姿态精度,针对由惯性测量单元(Inertial Measurement Unit),红外地平仪和太阳敏感器组成的卫星姿态确定系统,分别采用BP网络算法和径向基(RBF)网络算法对不同的姿态敏感器的输出数据进行融合,并用STK(Satellite Tool Kit)数据进行了仿真.仿真分析结果表明这两种学习算法均可以提高卫星定姿精度,相对而言,RBF网络无论是精度上还是收敛速度上均优于BP网络.     

无线传感器网络中基于统计异常的入侵检测

无线传感器网络与传统网络存在较大差异,传统入侵检测技术不能有效地应用于无线传感器网络.结合无线传感器网络的特点,提出一种基于统计异常的入侵检测.入侵检测为传感器节点在正常工作状态下的某些系统特征建立行为模式,并通过统计观测值对正常行为模式的偏离程度来判断是否存在入侵.理论分析及仿真实验表明,提出的入侵检测技术可有效检测入侵,检测算法简洁高效,利于节能,适用于供能紧张的无线传感器网络.     

空军雷达兵部队计量保障信息管理系统平台设计

在现有指挥自动化网络的基础上,针对雷达装备计量保障信息化建设,提出构建空军雷达兵部队计量保障信息管理系统平台,给出平台的体系结构、数据库设计和系统平台的工作流程等初步设计方案,为提高雷达装备计量保障信息化管理提供了前期的技术预研.经实际应用证明,该设计方案能够较好的解决雷达装备计量保障资源信息管理和计量保障计划的自动生成等问题.     

基于Agent技术的战术互联网动态频谱管理系统

动态频谱管理是提升战术互联网作战效能的主要手段之一.首先分析了战术互联网以及动态频率管理工作特点的基础上,设计了一种基于Agent技术的动态频谱管理系统,并详细介绍了动态频谱管理的实现方法.     

突发事件处置经验对军队战时管理的启示

战时管理是关系作战全局的基础性工作,是保持和释放战斗力的重要举措,是确保军队高度集中统一、能打胜仗的重要支撑。有效提升军队战时管理能力是现代战争中部队管理工作亟待研究的重要课题。本文梳理了近期我国突发事件处置中的经验教训,从战时支前物资管理、战时人力资源管理及战时舆情信息管控三个方面提出：战时支前物资管理应完善机制、改造模式、畅通网络;战时人力资源管理应紧贴任务实际、突出岗才一致、彰显精简程序;战时舆情信息管控应统一机构、正确导向、纯洁队伍、严管舆论等措施,以期给未来战时管理决策提供可选方案,实现管理服务作战,保障打赢之目的。     

Optimal source placement for point coverage in active multistatic sonar networks

The allocation of underwater sensors for tracking, localization, and surveillance purposes is a fundamental problem in anti-submarine warfare. Inexpensive passive receivers have been heavily utilized in recent years; however, modern submarines are increasingly quiet and difficult to detect with receivers alone. Recently, the idea of deploying noncollocated sources and receivers has emerged as a promising alternative to purely passive sensor fields and to traditional sonar fields composed of collocated sources and receivers. Such a multistatic sonar network carries a number of advantages, but it also brings increased system complexity resulting from its unusual coverage patterns. In this work, we study the problem of optimally positioning active multistatic sonar sources for a point coverage application where all receivers and points of interest are fixed and stationary. Using a definite range sensor model, we formulate exact methods and approximation algorithms for this problem and compare these algorithms via computational experiments. We also examine the performance of these algorithms on a discrete approximation of a continuous area coverage problem and find that they offer a significant improvement over two types of random sensor deployment.     

Revenue sharing contracts in a supply chain with uncontractible actions

We consider a supplier–customer relationship where the customer faces a typical Newsvendor problem of determining perishable capacity to meet uncertain demand. The customer outsources a critical, demand‐enhancing service to an outside supplier, who receives a fixed share of the revenue from the customer. Given such a linear sharing contract, the customer chooses capacity and the service supplier chooses service effort level before demand is realized. We consider the two cases when these decisions are made simultaneously (simultaneous game) or sequentially (sequential game). For each game, we analyze how the equilibrium solutions vary with the parameters of the problem. We show that in the equilibrium, it is possible that either the customer's capacity increases or the service supplier's effort level decreases when the supplier receives a larger share of the revenue. We also show that given the same sharing contract, the sequential game always induces a higher capacity and more effort. For the case of additive effort effect and uniform demand distribution, we consider the customer's problem of designing the optimal contract with or without a fixed payment in the contract, and obtain sensitivity results on how the optimal contract depends on the problem parameters. For the case of fixed payment, it is optimal to allocate more revenue to the supplier to induce more service effort when the profit margin is higher, the cost of effort is lower, effort is more effective in stimulating demand, the variability of demand is smaller or the supplier makes the first move in the sequential game. For the case of no fixed payment, however, it is optimal to allocate more revenue to the supplier when the variability of demand is larger or its mean is smaller. Numerical examples are analyzed to validate the sensitivity results for the case of normal demand distribution and to provide more managerial insights. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2008     

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