Computing Aviation Sparing Policies: Solving a Large Nonlinear Integer Program

Deployed US Navy aircraft carriers must stock a large number of spare parts to support the various types of aircraft embarked on the ship. The sparing policy determines the spares that will be stocked on the ship to keep the embarked aircraft ready to fly. Given a fleet of ten or more aircraft carriers and a cost of approximately 50 million dollars per carrier plus the cost of spares maintained in warehouses in the United States, the sparing problem constitutes a significant portion of the Navy’s resources. The objective of this work is to find a minimum-cost sparing policy that meets the readiness requirements of the embarked aircraft. This is a very large, nonlinear, integer optimization problem. The cost function is piecewise linear and convex while the constraint mapping is highly nonlinear. The distinguishing characteristics of this problem from an optimization viewpoint are that a large number of decision variables are required to be integer and that the nonlinear constraint functions are essentially “black box” functions; that is, they are very difficult (and expensive) to evaluate and their derivatives are not available. Moreover, they are not convex. Integer programming problems with a large number of variables are difficult to solve in general and most successful approaches to solving nonlinear integer problems have involved linear approximation and relaxation techniques that, because of the complexity of the constraint functions, are inappropriate for attacking this problem. We instead employ a pattern search method to each iteration of an interior point-type algorithm to solve the relaxed version of the problem. From the solution found by the pattern search on each interior point iteration, we begin another pattern search on the integer lattice to find a good integer solution. The best integer solution found across all interations is returned as the optimal solution. The pattern searches are distributed across a local area network of non-dedicated, heterogeneous computers in an office environment, thus, drastically reducing the time required to find the solution.     

The Casimir effect of Reissner-NordstrSm black hole

The stress tensor of a massless scalar field satisfying a mixed boundary condition in a （1 ＋ 1）-dimensional Reissner- Nordstrom black hole background is calculated by using Wald＇s axiom. We find that Dirichlet stress tensor and Neumann stress tensor can be deduced by changing the coefficients of the stress tensor calculated under a mixed boundary condition. The stress tensors satisfying Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are discussed. In addition, we also find that the stress tensor in conformal flat spacetime background differs from that in flat spacetime only by a constant.     

Derived Lengths of Solvable Groups Having Five Irreducible Character Degrees II

Let G be a solvable group with five character degrees. Suppose that there is some prime p so that G/O ^p (G) is not Abelian. Also, assume that cd(G) contains a degree that is not divisible by p. Under these hypotheses, we show that the derived length of G is at most 4.     

Tunneling Radiation of a Torus-Like Black Hole in Anti-de Sitter Space-Time

An extension of the Parikh-Wilczek's semi-classical quantum tunneling method, the tunneling radiation of the charged particle from a torus-like black hole is investigated. Difference from the uncharged mass-less particle, the geodesics of the charged massive particle tunneling from the black hole is not light-like, but determined by the phase velocity. The derived result shows that the tunneling rate depends on the emitted particle's energy and electric charge, and takes the same functional form as uncharged particle. It proves also that the exact emission spectrum is not strictly pure thermal, but is consistent with the underlying unitary theory. PACS Numbers: 04.70.Dy, 97.60.Lf, 05.30.Ch.     

Cyclic cohomology and algebra extensions

We construct a spectral sequence to study cyclic cohomology for an extension A = R/I of algebras. When R is a free algebra we describe the cyclic cohomology of A in terms of traces defined on R or powers of I. Explicit cyclic cocycles representing the cyclic cohomology class belonging to the trace are constructed as analogues of Chern character and Chern-Simons forms.Dedicated to Alexander Grothendieck     

一种基于距离和灰度的特征提取及其十字链表法的编程实现

本文从数字图像的灰度及其边缘的距离特征 ,对数字图像的特征提取进行了分析和探讨 ,并绘出了基于十字链表这种数据结构的编程实现方案     

运动玻璃等级标记的在线提取和识别

为了识别浮法玻璃生产线上玻璃的等级标记 ,实现玻璃的自动化分等级堆垛 ,本文提出了运用减影的方法提取运动玻璃上的等级标记 ,并提出了一种基于膨胀的识别目标的新方法 ,此方法源于在包含标记的二值图象中 ,从标记区到背景区黑色象素点 (灰度值为零 )的个数大幅度减少的现象。玻璃等级动态在线识别系统的应用实践表明 ,本文提出的方法运算速度快 ,标记的识别率高     

回眸近二十年《评皇券牒》的争鸣与探讨

对近二十年来瑶学界在《评皇券牒》的研究中争论和探讨的主要问题作了比较全面的综述     

Biomagnetic measurements utilising a superparamagnetic marker: a feasibility study

Summary A preliminary study is here reported on a new potential marker for biomagnetic measurements. The marker consists of superparamagnetic polymer microspheres which were detected in the presence of external steady magnetic fields by means of an r.f.-SQUID magnetometer. The particles were prepared in samples differing in the concentration value and immersed in a homogeneous magnetic field of variable intensity. A simple model was taken into account for the distribution of the microspheres in the samples, so that the theoretical values were compared to the marker field values measured by the biomagnetic sensor. The overall sensitivity of the experimental apparatus and the minimum concentration value of the marker were then estimated.     

织造过程中经纱张力计算机控制系统的研究

为了提高织机生产效率和扩大织造品种范围，提出了织造过程中经纱张力控制的目标和相适应的控制方案，研制了经纱张力计算机控制系统，达到了预期的性能指标。