Optimal preventive strike strategy vs. optimal attack strategy in a defense-attack game

This paper analyzes an attack-defense game between one defender and one attacker. Among, the defender moves first and allocates its resources to three different methods: employing a preventive strike, founding false targets, and protecting its genuine object. The preventive strike may expose the genuine object, and different from previous literature, a false target may also be detected to be false. The attacker, observing the actions taken by the defender and allocating its resources to three methods: protecting its own base from the preventive strike, founding false bases, and attacking the defender's genuine object. Similarly, a false base may be correctly identified. Different from previous methods in evaluating the potential outcome, for each of the defender's given strategies, the attacker tries to maximize its cumulative prospect value considering different possible outcomes. Similarly, the defender maximizes its cumulative prospect value, assuming that the attacker chooses the strategy to maximize the attacker's cumulative prospect value. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the optimal number of bases to attack by preventive strike, and the optimal number of targets to attack by attacker

A Pragma-Dialectical Approach to Trade Friction Discourse: A Case Study of a Public Letter in Sino-US Trade Friction on Tire Special Safeguard

本文借助语用论辩学的策略操控分析方 法，分析 2009 年 7 月 27 日中国五矿化工产品 进出口商会（CCCMC）、中国橡胶工业协会 (CRIA)致奥巴马和美国贸易代表（USTR）的公 开信中的论辩策略，试图深入剖析中方在此轮 胎贸易摩擦中运用的论辩策略及其语言实现手 段。研究结果显示，公开信策略操控综合体现 在潜在话题选择、迎合听众需求和选择表达手 段三个方面，主要使用了预设、对比、诉诸普遍 价值观、诉诸权威、模糊表达、重复、统计、诉 诸对手妥协之处等不同的策略。但是，中方在 冲突阶段的意见分歧界定、开始阶段出发点的 选择、论辩阶段话题选择三个方面，以及对比、 统计等具体话语策略的使用上出现了一些偏 差。有鉴于此，我们建议中方在今后的贸易论 辩话语中应：(1)明确论辩话语的冲突、开始、 论辩和结束四个重要阶段，在清楚界定每个阶 段论辩目标的同时，合理、巧妙地设置各阶段 的修辞目标；(2)根据不同阶段的论辩和修辞目 标灵活选择合适有效的策略操控方式；(3)认清 贸易摩擦话语的机构性语境，树立坚定自信的 形象。 Based on the analytical framework of Strategic Maneuvering, this paper analyzes and evaluates the public letter from China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals & Chemicals Importers & Exporters (CCCMC) and China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) to Obama and United States Trade Representative (USTR) on July 27th, 2009 to reveal the discursive strategies and their corresponding linguistic realizations manipulated in tire special safeguard case. The research results show that, strategic maneuvering in CCCMC & CRIA’s public letters is integratedly realized through choice of topical potential, catering for audience demands and choice of presentational devices, which is supported by such argumentative strategies as presupposition, contrast, appeal to audience's values, appeal to authority, vagueness, repetition, statistics, appeal to opponent ’ s concession, and the like. CCCMC & CRIA’s public letter has its shortcomings in clarification of difference of opinion in the confrontation stage, in choice of starting in the opening stage, in choice of topics in the argumentation stage and in manipulation of such specific argumentative rhetoric strategies as ‘contrast’ and ‘statistics’. In view of China’s merits and deficiency, China should: (1) clarify the confrontation, opening, argumentation and concluding stages of the argumentative discourse and flexibly set the dialectic and rhetoric aims of these four stages according to the context; (2) strategically maneuver among topical potential, audience demand and presentational devices, in line with the established dialectic and rhetoric aims in different argumentative stages; (3) recognize the institutional context of trade friction discourse and the importance of language expression, and cultivate an assertive image

Considering greenhouse gas emissions in maintenance optimisation

Greenhouse gases (GHG) from human activities are the main contributor to climate change since the mid-20th century. Reducing the release of GHG emissions is becoming a thematic research topic in many research disciplines. In the reliability research community, there are research papers relating to reliability and maintenance for systems in power generation farms such as offshore farms. Nevertheless, there is sparse research that aims to optimise maintenance policies for reducing the GHG emissions from systems such as automotive vehicles or building service systems. To fill up this gap, this paper optimises replacement policies for systems that age and degrade and that produce GHG emissions (i.e., exhaust emissions) including the initial manufacturing GHG emissions produced during the manufacturing stage and the emissions generated during the operational stage. Both the exhaust emissions process and the failure process are considered as functions of two time scales (i.e., age and accumulated usage), respectively. Other factors that may affect the two processes such as ambient temperature and road conditions are depicted as random effects. Under these settings, the decision problem is a nonlinear programming problem subject to several constraints. Replacement policies are then developed. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed methods