Nanoscale Science and Technology at Los Alamos National Laboratory

Research in the emerging field of nanoscale science and technology has grown steadily at Los Alamos National Laboratory since 1990. This article summarizes some of this work, examining research highlights within the seven key categories of nanoscience in which Los Alamos has ongoing projects, capabilities, and facilities: (1) Materials and chemistry, (2) Theory and modeling, (3) Bioscience, (4) Investigative tools and facilities, (5) Sensors and devices, (6) Synthesis and fabrication, and (7) Education and outreach. Future research horizons are indicated throughout while institutional strategies for advancing nanoscale science are summarized at the end.     

Quantifying the value of buyer–vendor coordination: Analytical and numerical results under different replenishment cost structures

Despite a growing interest in channel coordination, no detailed analytical or numerical results measuring its impact on system performance have been reported in the literature. Hence, this paper aims to develop analytical and numerical results documenting the system-wide cost improvement rates that are due to coordination. To this end, we revisit the classical buyer–vendor coordination problem introduced by Goyal [S.K. Goyal, An integrated inventory model for a single-supplier single-customer problem. International Journal of Production Research 15 (1976) 107–111] and extended by Toptal et al. [A. Toptal, S. Çetinkaya, C.-Y. Lee, The buyer–vendor coordination problem: modeling inbound and outbound cargo capacity and costs, IIE Transactions on Logistics and Scheduling 35 (2003) 987–1002] to consider generalized replenishment costs under centralized decision making. We analyze (i) how the counterpart centralized and decentralized solutions differ from each other, (ii) under what circumstances their implications are similar, and (iii) the effect of generalized replenishment costs on the system-wide cost improvement rates that are due to coordination. First, considering Goyal’s basic setting, we show that the improvement rate depends on cost parameters. We characterize this dependency analytically, develop analytical bounds on the improvement rate, and identify the problem instances in which considerable savings can be achieved through coordination. Next, we analyze Toptal et al.’s [A. Toptal, S. Çetinkaya, C.-Y. Lee, The buyer–vendor coordination problem: modeling inbound and outbound cargo capacity and costs, IIE Transactions on Logistics and Scheduling 35 (2003) 987–1002] extended setting that considers generalized replenishment costs representing inbound and outbound transportation considerations, and we present detailed numerical results quantifying the value of coordination. We report significant improvement rates with and without explicit transportation considerations, and we present numerical evidence which suggests that larger rates are more likely in the former case.     

Robust Optimal Stopping-Time Control for Nonlinear Systems

Abstract. We formulate a robust optimal stopping-time problem for a state-space system and give the connection between various notions of lower value function for the associated games (and storage function for the associated dissipative system) with solutions of the appropriate variational inequality (VI) (the analogue of the Hamilton—Jacobi—Bellman—Isaacs equation for this setting). We show that the stopping-time rule can be obtained by solving the VI in the viscosity sense and a positive definite supersolution of the VI can be used for stability analysis.     

A single supplier–single retailer system with an order-up-to level inventory policy

We consider a two-level vendor-managed system in which external demand occurs only at a retailer and a supplier replenishes the retailer employing an order-up-to S policy over T periods. We present an O(T³) algorithm to coordinate the system when S is known. We also show that S can be optimized in O(aT³) time for an input parameter a.     

Classical Risk Model with Threshold Dividend Strategy

In this article, a threshold dividend strategy is used for classical risk model. Under this dividend strategy, certain probability of ruin, which occurs in case of constant barrier strategy, is avoided. Using the strong Markov property of the surplus process and the distribution of the deficit in classical risk model, the survival probability for this model is derived, which is more direct than that in Asmussen（2000, P195, Proposition 1.10）. The occupation time of non-dividend of this model is also discussed by means of Martingale method.     

最优多期比例再保险策略的必要条件

研究最小化保险公司破产概率的最优多期比例再保险策略,给出了保险公司最小破产概率的一个递归表达式,证明了可用动态规划方法求解此类问题.在此基础上,我们推导出最优多期比例再保险策略的几个必要条件.     

A note on coalitional manipulation and centralized inventory management

In this note we deal with inventory games as defined in Meca et al. (Math. Methods Oper. Res. 57:483–491, 2003). In that context we introduce the property of immunity to coalitional manipulation, and demonstrate that the SOC-rule (Share the Ordering Cost) is the unique allocation rule for inventory games which satisfies this property. The authors acknowledge the financial support of Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, FEDER and Xunta de Galicia through projects SEJ2005-07637-C02-02 and PGIDIT06PXIC207038PN.     

复合Poisson模型中“双界限”分红问题

引入了复合Poisson模型中的"双界限"分红模型,在这种模型中,当盈余超过上限时分红以不超过保费率的速率付出,低于下限后保费率增大.文中利用Gerber- Shiu函数来分析这种模型,先导出了Gerber-Shiu函数m_1,m_2,m_3满足的积分-微分方程,再给出m_1,m_2,m_3的解析表示,最后通过几步把Gerber-Shiu函数m(u;b_1,b)的解析式表示出来.     

An efficient computational approach for railway booking problems

This paper deals with the determination of seat allocations for a rail booking system. It is assumed that demand for each trip in the network can be divided into two segments, namely a full fare segment and a discounted fare segment. A constrained nonlinear integer programming model is formulated to deal with this problem. The purpose of this paper is to develop an efficient heuristic approach to develop the booking limits for all ticket types in the railway network. The solutions obtained by the heuristic approach are compared with those found by the Lingo software and the DICOPT solver. Numerical results show that the proposed heuristic approach only require a small number of CPU time to obtain superior solutions.     

一类变质性物品在考虑信用期时的补货策略

随着人们物质生活的不断丰富,库存控制系统所处的环境变得既复杂又多变,光靠规模化的经营已经不能满足顾客的需要,经典的EOQ模型的订购批量解也与实际的最优值之间具有很大的差距.由次,本文修改了EOQ模型中的一些假设,在考虑信用期的情况下,研究了需求率为常数、物品存贮寿命为两参数维布尔分布的单一变质性物品在有限计划期内的补货策略,证明了最优补货策略的存在性及惟一性,同时给出了求解最优补货策略的算例,得到了应用更为广泛的结论.