Optimal replacement and allocation of multi‐state elements in k‐within‐m‐from‐r/n sliding window systems

This paper proposes a new model that generalizes the linear sliding window system to the case of multiple failures. The considered k ‐within‐ m ‐from‐ r / n sliding window system consists of n linearly ordered multi‐state elements and fails if at least k groups out of m consecutive groups of r consecutive multi‐state elements have cumulative performance lower than the demand W . A reliability evaluation algorithm is suggested for the proposed system. In order to increase the system availability, maintenance actions can be performed, and the elements can be optimally allocated. A joint element allocation and maintenance optimization model is formulated with the objective of minimizing the total maintenance cost subjected to the pre‐specified system availability requirement. Basic procedures of genetic algorithms are adapted to solve the optimization problem. Numerical experiments are presented to illustrate the applications. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A model of interim information sharing under incomplete information

We propose a two-person game-theoretical model to study information sharing decisions at an interim stage when information is incomplete. The two agents have pieces of private information about the state of nature, and that information is improved by combining the pieces. Agents are both senders and receivers of information. There is an institutional arrangement that fixes a transfer of wealth from an agent who lies about her private information. In our model, we show that (1) there is a positive relation between information revelation and the amount of the transfers, and (2) information revelation has a collective action structure, in particular, the incentives of an agent to reveal decrease with respect to the amount of information disclosed by the other.     

Optimal preventive maintenance policy for electric power distribution systems based on the fuzzy AHP methods

In power distribution systems, with their great vastness and various outage causes, one of the most important problems of power distribution companies is to select a suitable maintenance strategy of system elements and method of financial planning for the maintenance of system elements with the two objectives of decrease in outage costs and improvement of system reliability. In this article, a practical method is introduced for the selection of a suitable system elements maintenance strategy; moreover, to plan the preventive maintenance budget for the system elements, two methods are offered: the cost optimization method and the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. In the former method, a new model of system maintenance cost is offered. This model, based on system outage information, the elements maintenance costs are determined as functions of system reliability indices and preventive maintenance budget. The latter method, too, a new guideline is introduced for considering the cost and reliability criteria in the trend of preventive maintenance budget planning. In this method, the preventive maintenance budget for the elements is determined based on relative priority of elements with reliability criteria. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Complexity 21: 70–88, 2016     

A hybrid maintenance model with imperfect inspection for a system with deterioration and Poisson failure

A new maintenance model for a system with both deterioration and Poisson failures is proposed. In this model, at any time-instant G _S and when the system is operating, one of the following decisions may be taken: (1) stop the system to perform a scheduled minimal maintenance; (2) stop the system to perform an inspection; and (3) no action and allow the system to go on with its operation. Following an inspection, based on the deterioration condition of the system, one of the following decisions may be taken: (a) if the system is in a ‘good’ condition, no maintenance action is taken and a number of periodic minimal maintenance activities are scheduled, starting T1 later; (b) if the system is in an ‘intermediate’ condition, a minimal maintenance is performed and an inspection is scheduled for T2 later (T2 < T1); and (c) if the system is in a ‘bad’ condition, a major maintenance is performed and a number of periodic minimal maintenances are scheduled, starting T1 later. In addition, a deterioration failure is restored by a major repair and a Poisson failure is restored by a minimal repair. Generalised stochastic Petri nets are used to represent and analyse the model, which represents a ‘composite’ maintenance strategy. Based on maximisation of the throughput of the system the benefit of this model compared to (1) an equivalent periodic inspection model and (2) an equivalent planned scheduled maintenance model, is demonstrated. This study presents a new hybrid model with a general framework for incorporating various types of maintenance policies. Also by incorporation of a number of features, this model will be more applicable to real world technical systems (complex systems), although it can be applied to individual components that are part of a complex system.     

A model for diffusion of mulucomponent information

The epidemic model of diffusion of news (or disease) is generalized to describe the diffusion of a multi‐component information. The multivaluedness of information in our model arises due to the large number (k) of constituent components or items of the information in question. When the different components of information are assumed to bear no hierarchy, the master equation of the model contains an intractably large number of variables (2 ^k ). The dynamics of the model, however, displays some simplifying features, one of which is the conservation of homogeneity of distribution of population over the different information vectors (in the sense defined in the text). The homogenized version of the model is found to be numerically tractable. The growth curves for large k continue to display sigmoid shapes, but with large ‘saturation times’. The dependence of ‘saturation time’ (i.e. the time required for spread of all the information in almost the entire population) on various parameters of the model, for uniform initial distributions, is numerically investigated. The ‘saturation time’ is found to vary inversely with the intensity of interaction (ß) and the size of population (N), as expected. An important numerical feature that emerges is that the ‘saturation time’ seems to be in linear proportion to the number of information items (k).     

Hybrid block replacement and inspection policies for a multi-component system with heterogeneous component lives

Novel replacement policies that are hybrids of inspection maintenance and block replacement are developed for an n identical component series system in which the component parts used at successive replacements arise from a heterogeneous population. The heterogeneous nature of components implies a mixed distribution for time to failure. In these circumstances, a hybrid policy comprising two phases, an early inspection phase and a later wear-out replacement phase, may be appropriate. The policy has some similarity to burn-in maintenance. The simplest policy described is such a hybrid and comprises a block-type or periodic replacement policy with an embedded block or periodic inspection policy. We use a three state failure model, in which a component may be good, defective or failed, in order to consider inspection maintenance. Hybrid block replacement and age-based inspection, and opportunistic hybrid policies will also arise naturally in these circumstances and these are briefly investigated. For the simplest policy, an approximation is used to determine the long-run cost and the system reliability. The policies have the interesting property that the system reliability may be a maximum when the long-run cost is close to its minimum. The failure model implies that the effect of maintenance is heterogeneous. The policies themselves imply that maintenance is carried out more prudently to newer than to older systems. The maintenance of traction motor bearings on underground trains is used to illustrate the ideas in the paper.     

Torus Actions in the Normalization Problem

Let f be a germ of biholomorphism of ℂ ⁿ , fixing the origin. We show that if the germ commutes with a torus action, then we get information on the germs that can be conjugated to f, and furthermore on the existence of a holomorphic linearization or of a holomorphic normalization of f. We find out in a complete and computable manner what kind of structure a torus action must have in order to get a Poincaré-Dulac holomorphic normalization, studying the possible torsion phenomena. In particular, we link the eigenvalues of df _O to the weight matrix of the action. The link and the structure we found are more complicated than what one would expect; a detailed study was needed to completely understand the relations between torus actions, holomorphic Poincaré-Dulac normalizations, and torsion phenomena. We end the article giving an example of techniques that can be used to construct torus actions.     

Chip firing and all-terminal network reliability bounds

The (all-terminal) reliability of a graph G is the probability that all vertices are in the same connected component, given that vertices are always operational but edges fail independently each with probability p. Computing reliability is #P-complete, and hence is expected to be intractable. Consequently techniques for efficiently (and effectively) bounding reliability have been the major thrust of research in the area. We utilize a deep connection between reliability and chip firings on graphs to improve previous bounds for reliability.     

Strong Stability of Queues with Multiple Vacation of the Server

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to use the strong stability method to approximate the characteristics of the M/G/1//N queue with server vacation by those of the classical M/G/1//N queue, when the rate of the vacations is sufficiently small. This last queue is simpler and more exploitable in practice. For this, we proof the stability conditions and next obtain quantitative stability estimates with an exact computation of constants. From these theoretical results, we can develop an algorithm in order to check the conditions of approximation. These results of approximation have a great practical and economic interest in reliability systems and maintenance optimization policy, when we consider elements with constant failure rate.     

Sharp regularity estimates for solutions of the wave equation and their traces with prescribed neumann data

In this paper the regularity properties of second-order hyperbolic equations defined over a rectangular domain Θ with boundary Γ under the action of a Neumann boundary forcing term inL ² (0,T;H ^1/4 (Γ)) are investigated. With this given boundary input, we prove by a cosine operator/functional analytical approach that not only is the solution of the wave equation and its derivatives continuous in time, with their pointwise values in a basic energy space (in the interior of Ω), but also that a trace regularity thereof can be assigned for the solution’s time derivative in an appropriate (negative) Sobolev space. This new-found information on the solution and its traces is crucial in handling a mathematical model derived for a particular fluid/structure interaction system.     

Some results on the proportional reversed hazards model

The proportional reversed hazards model consists in describing random failure times by a family {[F(x)]^θ, θ>0} of distribution functions, where F(x) is a baseline distribution function. We show various results on this model related to some topics in reliability theory, including ageing notions of random lifetimes, comparisons based on stochastic orders, and relative ageing of distributions.     

Group actions and orbits

Let A be a group acting via automorphisms on a group G, and let Ω be the set of orbits in this action. Then C = C _G (A) acts on Ω in a natural manner, and using this action, we deduce some divisibility information about |Ω|.     

Optimisation of a single-component maintenance system: A smoothed perturbation analysis approach

In this paper we show how the technique of smoothed perturbation analysis (SPA) can be applied to optimize threshold values in a maintenance model. We do so for a particular model in which a single component is minimally repaired up to an age threshold t and preventively replaced at age t_p, where t_p>t. With each maintenance action, such as minimal repair, replacement after failure or preventive replacement, costs are associated. These costs may depend on the sample path history of the component. We derive an estimator for the derivative of the cost performance with respect to t and t_p.     

基于综合重要度的动车组多部件系统机会维修策略研究

针对我国动车组列车现行维修方式,提出基于综合重要度序列的动车组多部件系统机会维修策略,对提高系统可靠度贡献大的关键部件进行准时优先维修。建立部件综合重要度指数计算模型,并依据其对部件维修优先级进行排序。以维修总成本最低为目标计算单部件最优维修周期及时刻,以系统维修总成本最低为目标,以关键部件的维修时刻为系统停机时刻建立考虑重要度的多部件系统机会维修模型。算例选取某型动车组四级修时更换的四部件系统为研究对象,讨论机会维修里程窗的大小及其偏移量对维修效果的影响,对比结果表明,考虑综合重要度的机会维修策略能够在维修费用基本持平的条件下,保证对系统可靠性贡献大的关键部件的可靠性,进而保证系统的整体可靠性。     

Analysis,Simulation, and Optimization of Stochastic Vesicle Dynamics in Synaptic Transmission

Synaptic transmission is the mechanism of information transfer from one neuron to another (or from a neuron to a muscle or to an endocrine cell). An important step in this physiological process is the stochastic release of neurotransmitter from vesicles that fuse with the presynaptic membrane and spill their contents into the synaptic cleft. We are concerned here with the formulation, analysis, and simulation of a mathematical model that describes the stochastic docking, undocking, and release of synaptic vesicles and their effect on synaptic signal transmission. The focus of this paper is on the parameter p₀, the probability of release for each docked vesicle when an action potential arrives. We study the influence of this parameter on the statistics of the release process and on the theoretical capability of the model synapse in reconstructing various desired outputs based on the timing and amount of neurotransmitter release. This theoretical capability is assessed by formulating and solving an optimal filtering problem. Methods for parameter identification are proposed and applied to simulated data. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improper actions and higher connectivity at infinity

Given an improper action (= cell stabilizers are infinite) of a group G on a CW-complex , we present criteria, based on connectivity at infinity properties of the cell stabilizers under the action of G that imply connectivity at infinity properties for G. A refinement of this idea yields information on the topology at infinity of Artin groups, and it gives significant progress on the question of which Artin groups are duality groups. Received: October 30, 1998     

Properties of states of recongnition arising from a set of knowledge systems with imperfect reporting †

The main purpose of this article b to study how sometimes incomplete information coming from different sources can be put together. After interrogating the q^th source, a variable X_q is defined whose values are passible states. It is shown that {X_q } forms a Markov chain. It is shown that the probability of not getting additional information at the q^th source is the averaged commonality induced by X_q . Other related questions are looked at. Then, strategies are defined as to what to do when the probability of different states is not known. A possible way to proceed is to view possible states as environments in which decisions must be made. Different strategies, under different degrees of the reliability of the sources, are sketched. The belief function is used to build different payoffs and fuzzy versions of the problems are studied     

Varieties birationally isomorphic to affine <Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>-varieties

Let a linear algebraic group G act on an algebraic variety X. Classification of all these actions, in particular birational classification, is of great interest. A complete classification related to Galois cohomologies of the group G was established. Another important question is reducibility, in some sense, of this action to an action of G on an affine variety. It has been shown that if the stabilizer of a typical point under the action of a reductive group G on a variety X is reductive, then X is birationally isomorphic to an affine variety [`(X)] \bar X with stable action of G. In this paper, I show that if a typical orbit of the action of G is quasiaffine, then the variety X is birationally isomorphic to an affine variety [`(X)] \bar X .     

Life behavior of censored <Emphasis Type="Italic">δ</Emphasis>-shock model

The shock models play an important role in reliability theory. In a previous paper by Li et al., the δ-shock model, which is different from the classical shock model, was introduced and studied. In this paper, a censored δ-shock model is presented, which originates from the study of customer relationship management (CRM). Based on the underlying homogeneous Poisson process, we obtain the explicit distribution of system lifetime and other related properties, and demonstrate that this new system is superior to NBU. In addition, an exponential limit theorem is obtained. Finally, the application of this new system to evaluate customer lifetime values (CLV) is provided. These results are important to theory and applications.