Of war plans and war guilt: The debate surrounding the Schlieffen Plan

This article outlines the controversy surrounding the thesis advanced by Terence Zuber that there never was a Schlieffen Plan and that German war planning in 1914, far from having the aggressive edge that historians have attributed to it for decades, was in fact designed to deal with a Franco-Russian attack on Germany. In addition to reviewing the debate precipitated by Zuber's thesis, this article also takes a closer look at how Germany prepared for war in the years 1906–14, and particularly how it ended up embarking on that war in August 1914. Such an investigation of German war planning, with particular emphasis on the war plans of the younger Moltke, will serve as a critique of Zuber's controversial thesis, and it will be shown that while Zuber maintains that there never was a Schlieffen Plan, Schlieffen, Moltke and their contemporaries were certain that such a plan existed. In 1914, Moltke did not shrink from implementing his own version of Schlieffen's strategic thinking when war broke out.     

Dual‐ascent and primal heuristics for production‐assembly‐distribution system design

This article proposes two dual‐ascent algorithms and uses each in combination with a primal drop heuristic embedded within a branch and bound framework to solve the uncapacitated production assembly distribution system (i.e., supply chain) design problem, which is formulated as a mixed integer program. Computational results indicate that one approach, which combines primal drop and dual‐ascent heuristics, can solve instances within reasonable time and prescribes solutions with gaps between the primal and dual solution values that are less than 0.15%, an efficacy suiting it for actual large‐scale applications. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

二维超声速空气引射器启动特性试验研究

xxxx超声速引射器是高空模拟试车台的重要组件,在发动机启动前利用引射器对试验舱预抽真空可避免发动机启动初始时刻燃气漏入试验舱造成燃气在发动机中分离,对获取发动机在高空环境下的完整推力特性具有重要意义。而该工况下超声速引射器的启动过程是引射器工作过程中最为恶劣的工况,设计不合理的引射器会导致启动压力过高甚至不能实现启动。建立了缩比超声速空气引射器试验台对超声速引射器的启动特性进行研究,采用压力测量方法结合纹影技术对超声速引射器处于极限启动压比时的流场进行了描述,研究结果表明混合室收缩比越小,引射器极限启动压比越低。同时给出了定位超声速引射器不启动原因的判据：当引射器不启动是由引射总压不足引起时,盲腔压力在引射总压提高时降低,并在临界启动状态下达到最小值;而由混合室收缩比过小导致的引射器不启动在引射总压提高时盲腔压力单调上升。     

Component importance for linear consecutive‐ k ‐Out‐of‐ n and m ‐Consecutive‐ k ‐Out‐of‐ n systems with exchangeable components

Measuring the relative importance of components in a mechanical system is useful for various purposes. In this article, we study Birnbaum and Barlow‐Proschan importance measures for two frequently studied system designs: linear consecutive k ‐out‐of‐ n and m ‐consecutive‐ k ‐out‐of‐ n systems. We obtain explicit expressions for the component importance measures for systems consisting of exchangeable components. We illustrate the results for a system whose components have a Lomax type lifetime distribution. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

Some aspects in estimating warranty and post‐warranty repair demands

When customers buy a product, they are often eligible for free repairs for a certain warranty period. In this article, we study some important aspects, which are often overlooked in the literature but are of interest to the manufacturer, in estimating both warranty and post‐warranty repair demands. We consider that the installed base of the product (i.e., the number of units of the product actually in use) varies with time due to both new sales and units being taken out of service. When estimating warranty and post‐warranty repair demands, we explicitly address the fact that customers may not always request repairs for failed units. For the case where the product failure time distribution is exponential, we derive the closed‐form expressions for both types of repair demands of a single unit and of the time‐varying installed base. The insights into some risk‐related quantities are also presented. Furthermore, the proposed model is extended by considering delayed warranty claims that are frequently seen in practice. Numerical examples illustrate that understanding both types of repair demands and the related decision variables is important for managing the obligatory and profitable repair services. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 60: 499–511, 2013     

Comparison between constant‐stress and step‐stress accelerated life tests under Time Constraint

By running life tests at higher stress levels than normal operating conditions, accelerated life testing (ALT) quickly yields information on the lifetime distribution of a test unit. The lifetime at the design stress is then estimated through extrapolation using a regression model. In constant‐stress testing, a unit is tested at a fixed stress level until failure or the termination time point of test, whereas step‐stress testing allows the experimenter to gradually increase the stress levels at some prefixed time points during the test. In this work, the optimal k‐level constant‐stress and step‐stress ALTs are compared for the exponential failure data under complete sampling and Type‐I censoring. The objective is to quantify the advantage of using the step‐stress testing relative to the constant‐stress one. Assuming a log‐linear life–stress relationship with the cumulative exposure model for the effect of changing stress in step‐stress testing, the optimal design points are determined under C/D/A‐optimality criteria. The efficiency of step‐stress testing to constant‐stress one is then discussed in terms of the ratio of optimal objective functions based on the information matrix. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics 00: 000–000, 2013     

The effect of catastrophes on the strategic customer behavior in queueing systems

We consider the single server Markovian queue subject to Poisson generated catastrophes. Whenever a catastrophe occurs, all customers are forced to abandon the system, the server is rendered inoperative and an exponential repair time is set on. During the repair time new arrivals are allowed to join the system. We assume that the arriving customers decide whether to join the system or balk, based on a natural linear reward‐cost structure with two types of rewards: A (usual) service reward for those customers that receive service and a (compensation) failure reward for those customers that are forced to abandon the system due to a catastrophe. We study the strategic behavior of the customers regarding balking and derive the corresponding (Nash) equilibrium strategies for the observable and unobservable cases. We show that both types of strategic behavior may be optimal: to avoid the crowd or to follow it. The crucial factor that determines the type of customer behavior is the relative value of the service reward to the failure compensation. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2013     

基于主成分分析的通信方案优选评估

选择最优通信方案,是通信指挥员实施正确决策的重要前提。针对通信方案优选问题进行了分析研究,提出了通信方案评估指标。通过引入主成分分析法,对6套通信方案进行了综合评估,从而选出了最优通信方案。结果表明,提出的评估指标和评估方法可以辅助指挥员选择最佳方案,提高了决策的科学性。     

战术导弹靶场试验风险分析与处理方法

从战术导弹靶场试验风险因素存在的主要环节分析入手,建立了风险因素指标体系,结合靶场试验特点阐述了风险辨识、评估、处理的原则和方法,结合某型舰空导弹试验靶标保障的工程问题,对该靶标供靶风险进行了辨识,对风险发生的概率和后果严重性作出了评估,并在此基础上提出了解决问题的基本途径.     

引入块内码元频数抽样的块内频数检测识别方案

为识别链路层比特流是否加密,以未加密与加密数据在随机统计特性上的差异为依据,利用随机性检测的方法对加密比特流进行识别.在不同比特流长度条件下对3种典型随机性检测方法的识别率进行了比较研究.针对3种检测方法均对长度较短的未加密比特流识别率较低的问题,在块内频数检测的基础上,提出了基于块内码元频数抽样的比特流预处理方案,以及块内频数检测最优分块长度选择方案,并对预处理方案对识别率的影响进行了分析.实验结果表明,提出的方案可以显著提高块内频数检测对未加密比特流的识别率.