When are observed failures more informative than observed survivals?

A framework involving independent competing risks permits observing failures due to a specific cause and failures due to a competing cause, which constitute survival times from the cause of primary interest. Is observing more failures more informative than observing survivals? Intuitively, due to the definitiveness of failures, the answer seems to be the former. However, it has been shown before that this intuition holds when estimating the mean but not the failure rate of the exponential model with a gamma prior distribution for the failure rate. In this article, we address this question at a more general level. We show that for a certain class of distributions failures can be more informative than survivals for prediction of life length and vice versa for some others. We also show that for a large class of lifetime models, failure is less informative than survival for estimating the proportional hazards parameter with gamma, Jeffreys, and uniform priors. We further show that, for this class of lifetime models, on average, failure is more informative than survival for parameter estimation and for prediction. These results imply that the inferential purpose and properties of the lifetime distribution are germane for conducting life tests. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

The defence firm of the future

This paper offers the personal view of a senior executive in the Defence Procurement Agency about the future requirements of the defence industry’s principal UK customer. The focus here is on trying to identify the type of corporate behaviour and range of skill sets that the UK Government will need from defence suppliers, both primes and supply chain companies in the future. The concluding message from this ‘Customer View’ is that there is likely to be a continuing market for the company that specializes in delivering defence capability. It will be a company that will be looking for a long‐term relationship, with a specialist knowledge of its various national customers and a willingness to work openly and closely with them. It will be agile in its ability to bring together diverse technologies, to package them as a system and to deliver them either as hardware or as a service. Such suppliers will also need to innovate and to adapt at least as rapidly as the threats that they seek to counter.     

Inventory control and periodic price discounting campaigns

This paper develops an inventory model that determines replenishment strategies for buyers facing situations in which sellers offer price‐discounting campaigns at random times as a way to drive sales or clear excess inventory. Specifically, the model deals with the inventory of a single item that is maintained to meet a constant demand over time. The item can be purchased at two different prices denoted high and low. We assume that the low price goes into effect at random points in time following an exponential distribution and lasts for a random length of time following another exponential distribution. We highlight a replenishment strategy that will lead to the lowest inventory holding and ordering costs possible. This strategy is to replenish inventory only when current levels are below a certain threshold when the low price is offered and the replenishment is to a higher order‐up‐to level than the one currently in use when inventory depletes to zero and the price is high. Our analysis provides new insight into the behavior of the optimal replenishment strategy in response to changes in the ratio of purchase prices together with changes in the ratio of the duration of a low‐price period to that of a high‐price period. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2007.     

谈国人视野中的中国崛起

随着中国的快速发展,中国正在崛起已成为国内外有目共睹的事实。一些西方学者把中国崛起看成是对世界和平与发展的"威胁",中国人民则根据中国崛起所带来的巨大变化,把中国崛起看成是对人类文明的重大贡献。对中华民族而言,中国崛起造福13亿中国人,使中国人民基本过上了幸福的小康生活;对全人类来说,中国崛起惠及全世界,推动了世界经济的发展乃至人类文明的进步。     

陶行知生活教育思想略论

近代著名教育家陶行知在深刻批判封建传统教育的基础上,创立“生活教育”理论,学习、研究陶行知的这一理论,对推动我国教育改革,建设有中国特色的社会主义教育体系,具有重大指导意义。     

A stochastic assignment problem

There are n boxes with box i having a quota value Balls arrive sequentially, with each ball having a binary vector attached to it, with the interpretation being that if X_i = 1 then that ball is eligible to be put in box i. A ball's vector is revealed when it arrives and the ball can be put in any alive box for which it is eligible, where a box is said to be alive if it has not yet met its quota. Assuming that the components of a vector are independent, we are interested in the policy that minimizes, either stochastically or in expectation, the number of balls that need arrive until all boxes have met their quotas. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 62:23–31, 2015     

装备寿命预测的平行仿真模型在线演化方法

在面向装备剩余寿命预测的平行仿真技术研究基础上,统一了不同退化状态下的状态方程,提出了预测模型形态库的构建方法和预测模型形态选择算法,设计了“模型形态库构建—模型选择—数据同化—模型演化”的模型在线演化工作流程,运用扩展卡尔曼滤波和极大似然估计算法,实现了面向装备剩余寿命预测的平行仿真模型在线动态演化。通过仿真实验验证了模型形态选择算法和模型在线演化工作流程的有效性,取得了较好的仿真效果。     

双层随机机会约束规划的通信干扰任务分配优化仿真

研究不确定条件下的通信干扰任务分配优化问题具有重要的军事意义。基于干扰效益因子的概念,剖析了影响通信干扰任务分配的不确定性因素,建立了基于双层随机机会约束规划的通信干扰任务分配优化模型,设计了遗传蚁群智能算法,实例计算得到了通信干扰任务分配的最佳策略。     

大学生闲暇生活及闲暇教育初探

健康的闲暇生活对大学生知识和能力的提升具有重要意义。目前高校大学生闲暇生活质量不高,这直接影响到大学生身心健康、综合素质和全面发展。本文从大学生闲暇生活现状入手,客观分析了闲暇生活存在内容简单、质量不高、层次较低、结构失衡、缺乏目的性和应有的规划等偏差,提出高校必须充分重视闲暇教育,把大学生的闲暇教育纳入教育教学体系,依托学生组织开展丰富多样的闲暇教育活动,提高大学生闲暇生活的质量,促进其全面发展。     

基于多目标参数的液压设备恒定应力加速寿命试验设计

在液压设备恒定应力加速寿命试验中,针对应力的加载方式引起的热冲击和单目标参数带来的分析精度问题,设计了基于多目标参数的液压设备恒定应力加速寿命试验.首先,利用Burr XII型分布建立恒定应力加速寿命试验的数学模型,并以试验产品分位寿命的渐近方差加权和最小为目标,计算出试验最优的低应力水平以及产品在低应力水平和高应力水平上的最佳分配比例;其次,计算出模型参数的置信区间并对模型参数进行敏感性分析;最后,以某液压产品为实例进行分析.结果表明:该试验有助于提高液压产品可靠性分析的精度.