Metaheuristics for the dynamic stochastic dial-a-ride problem with expected return transports

The problem of transporting patients or elderly people has been widely studied in literature and is usually modeled as a dial-a-ride problem (DARP). In this paper we analyze the corresponding problem arising in the daily operation of the Austrian Red Cross. This nongovernmental organization is the largest organization performing patient transportation in Austria. The aim is to design vehicle routes to serve partially dynamic transportation requests using a fixed vehicle fleet. Each request requires transportation from a patient's home location to a hospital (outbound request) or back home from the hospital (inbound request). Some of these requests are known in advance. Some requests are dynamic in the sense that they appear during the day without any prior information. Finally, some inbound requests are stochastic. More precisely, with a certain probability each outbound request causes a corresponding inbound request on the same day. Some stochastic information about these return transports is available from historical data. The purpose of this study is to investigate, whether using this information in designing the routes has a significant positive effect on the solution quality. The problem is modeled as a dynamic stochastic dial-a-ride problem with expected return transports. We propose four different modifications of metaheuristic solution approaches for this problem. In detail, we test dynamic versions of variable neighborhood search (VNS) and stochastic VNS (S-VNS) as well as modified versions of the multiple plan approach (MPA) and the multiple scenario approach (MSA). Tests are performed using 12 sets of test instances based on a real road network. Various demand scenarios are generated based on the available real data. Results show that using the stochastic information on return transports leads to average improvements of around 15%. Moreover, improvements of up to 41% can be achieved for some test instances.     

Multiple resonances with time delays and enhancement by non-Gaussian noise in Newman-Watts networks of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons

In this paper, we study the effect of time delay on the spiking activity in Newman-Watts small-world networks of Hodgkin-Huxley neurons with non-Gaussian noise, and investigate how the non-Gaussian noise affects the delay-induced behaviors. It was found that, as the delay increases, the neuron spiking intermittently performs the most ordered and synchronized behavior when the delay lengths are integer multiples of the spiking periods, which shows multiple temporal resonances and spatial synchronizations, and reveals that the locking between the delay lengths and the spiking periods might be the mechanism behind the behaviors. It was also found that the delay-optimized spiking behaviors could be enhanced when non-Gaussian noise's deviation from the Gaussian noise is appropriate. These results show that time delay and non-Gaussian noise would cooperate to play more constructive and efficient roles in the information processing of neural networks.     

Multiple costs based decision making with back-propagation neural networks

The current research investigates a single cost for cost-sensitive neural networks (CNN) for decision making. This may not be feasible for real cost-sensitive decisions which involve multiple costs. We propose to modify the existing model, the traditional back-propagation neural networks (TNN), by extending the back-propagation error equation for multiple cost decisions. In this multiple-cost extension, all costs are normalized to be in the same interval (i.e. between 0 and 1) as the error estimation generated in the TNN. A comparative analysis of accuracy dependent on three outcomes for constant costs was performed: (1) TNN and CNN with one constant cost (CNN-1C), (2) TNN and CNN with two constant costs (CNN-2C), and (3) CNN-1C and CNN-2C. A similar analysis for accuracy was also made for non-constant costs; (1) TNN and CNN with one non-constant cost (CNN-1NC), (2) TNN and CNN with two non-constant costs (CNN-2NC), and (3) CNN-1NC and CNN-2NC. Furthermore, we compared the misclassification cost for CNNs for both constant and non-constant costs (CNN-1C vs. CNN-2C and CNN-1NC vs. CNN-2NC). Our findings demonstrate that there is a competitive behavior between the accuracy and misclassification cost in the proposed CNN model. To obtain a higher accuracy and lower misclassification cost, our results suggest merging all constant cost matrices into one constant cost matrix for decision making. For multiple non-constant cost matrices, our results suggest maintaining separate matrices to enhance the accuracy and reduce the misclassification cost.     

Attraction and Repulsion of Nucleons: Sources of Stellar Energy

The potential energy of a nuclide is enhanced by about 10 MeV per nucleon from the repulsion between like nucleons, and diminished by about 20 MeV per nucleon from the attraction between unlike nucleons. Nuclear stability results mostly from the interplay of these opposing forces, plus Coulomb repulsion of positive charges. Whereas fusion may be the primary mechanism by which first generation stars produce energy, repulsion between like nucleons may cause neutron emission from the collapsed core (neutron star) produced in a terminal supernova explosion and initiate luminosity in second generation stars that accrete on such objects. As noted earlier [1], the scarcity of solar neutrinos, the enrichment of light isotopes in the solar wind, and the presence of abundant short-lived nuclides and interlinked chemical and isotopic heterogeneities in the early solar system might also be explained if the Sun formed in this manner.     

A statistical micromechanical model of multiple cracking for ultra high toughness cementitious composites

A new statistical micromechanical model of multiple cracking is proposed in which a general expression of the fiber bridging stress laws in the crack plane is established. In this model, the random distribution properties of fibers are considered. And the Weibull function is adopted to represent the flaw size distribution. The relationships of stress versus strain and crack width versus strain are proposed. The formulas of the crack width, crack space, strain capacity and fracture energy density at the end of multiple cracking processes are also deduced. The validity of the proposed model was demonstrated by experimental results.     

M级交错N重开关并联移相驱动的单相功率因数校正器

对于单相交流电源供电的大功率家用变频空调、通讯电源等用电设备,需要采用大功率单相功率因数校正器,如多级交错APFC或在单级APFC中采取多个功率器件并联。本文提出和理论分析了一种M级交错、N重开关并联且所有功率器件移相驱动的APFc（MXNAPFC）,分析了其电路结构和工作原理．包括电压变比、纹波电流、驱动方法和控制方...     

Slotted ALOHA multiple access and error control coding for land mobile satellite networks

This paper considers a satellite network with data messages being transmitted by land mobile users according to slotted Aloha multiple access. The mobile communication links suffering from multipath fading and signal shadowing are modelled as Gilbert-Elliott channels. FEC block coding is used to correct transmission errors. The maximum achievable information throughput and the mean packet delay are derived from a combined analysis of the multiple access and FEC/ARQ protocol. The results show that the additional overhead necessary for FEC is outweighed by the benefit in throughput and delay. Finally, the capture effect and its consequences are discussed.     

多波束修正母线新型偏轴旋转反射面天线

以抛物线为母线的偏轴旋转抛面天线可以在锥面上或平面上实现宽角域扫描，或形成多束波天线，但沿性面和垂直之间的中间平面，子波束孔径上光程差很大，导致天线性能降低，本文以新型母线取代抛物线，创立新型偏轴旋转反射面天线，使天线性能得到显著改善。     

Fabrication of Alq3／PBD OMQW Structures and Its Photoluminescence Characteristics

Organic multiple quantum well(OMQW)structures consisting of alternating layers of tris(8-quinolinolato)aluminum(Ⅲ）（Alq3)an 2-(4-biphenylyl)-5-(4-ter-butylphenyl)-(1,3,3-oxadiazole)(PBD)have been fabricated by organic molecular beam deposition(OMBD).The individual layer thickness in the multilayer samples was varied from 6 nm tp 20nm.The multiple quantum well structures were determined by low angle X-ray diffraction,optical absorption and photoluminescence(PL).The PL spectra narrow and the emission energy has been observed to shift to higher energy compared with that in the monolayer structure,suggesting a quantum size effect.     

后3G时代LTE异军突起

介绍了下一代无线网络LTE(Long Term Evolution,长期演进)的背景和发展状况.分析了LTE的技术特征,阐述了LTE网络结构与核心技术,并通过与WiFi(WirelessFidelity)及WiMAX(World wide Inter operability for Microwave Access)的各项性能作比较,着重分析了LTE的技术优势.最后,指出了LTE在个人通信市场所面临的应用前景与挑战.