Stochastic Earned Duration Analysis for Project Schedule Management

Earned duration management(EDM)is a methodology for project schedule management(PSM)that can be considered an alternative to earned value management(EVM).EDM provides an estimation of devia-tions in schedule and a final project duration estimation.There is a key difference between EDM and EVM:In EDM,the value of activities is expressed as work periods;whereas in EVM,value is expressed in terms of cost.In this paper,we present how EDM can be applied to monitor and control stochastic pro-jects.To explain the methodology,we use a real case study with a project that presents a high level of uncertainty and activities with random durations.We analyze the usability of this approach according to the activities network topology and compare the EVM and earned schedule methodology(ESM)for PSM.

A genetic algorithm based stochastic programming model for air quality management

This paper presents a model that can aid planners in defining the total allowable pollutant discharge in the planning region, accounting for the dynamic and stochastic character of meteorological conditions. This is accomplished by integrating Monte Carlo simulation and using genetic algorithm to solve the model. The model is demonstrated by using a realistic air urban scale SO 2 control problem in the Yuxi City of China. To evaluate effectiveness of the model, results of the approach are shown to compare with those of the linear deterministic procedures. This paper also provides a valuable insight into how air quality targets should be made when the air pollutant will not threat the residents' health. Finally, a discussion of the areas for further research are briefly delineated.

A simulation-based two-stage interval-stochastic programming model for water resources management in Kaidu-Konqi watershed,China

This study presented a simulation-based two-stage interval-stochastic programming （STIP） model to support water resources management in the Kaidu-Konqi watershed in Northwest China. The modeling system coupled a distributed hydrological model with an interval two-stage stochastic programing （ITSP）. The distributed hydrological model was used for establishing a rainfall-runoff forecast system, while random parameters were pro- vided by the statistical analysis of simulation outcomes water resources management planning in Kaidu-Konqi The developed STIP model was applied to a real case of watershed, where three scenarios with different water re- sources management policies were analyzed. The results indicated that water shortage mainly occurred in agri- culture, ecology and forestry sectors. In comparison, the water demand from municipality, industry and stock- breeding sectors can be satisfied due to their lower consumptions and higher economic values. Different policies for ecological water allocation can result in varied system benefits, and can help to identify desired water allocation plans with a maximum economic benefit and a minimum risk of system disruption under uncertainty.

Stochastic Design of Enhanced Network Management Architecture and Algorithmic Implementations

The paper is focused on available server management in Internet connected network environments. The local backup servers are hooked up by LAN and replace broken main server immediately and several different types of backup servers are also considered. The remote backup servers are hooked up by VPN (Virtual Private Network) with high-speed optical network. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a way to use a public network infrastructure and hooks up long-distance servers within a single network infrastructure. The remote backup servers also replace broken main severs immediately under the different conditions with local backups. When the system performs a mandatory routine maintenance of main and local backup servers, auxiliary servers from other location are being used for backups during idle periods. Analytically tractable results are obtained by using several mathematical techniques and the results are demonstrated in the framework of optimized networked server allocation problems. The operational workflow give the guidelines for the actual implementations.

Comparison of GMO Safety Management Policies in Major Countries and Regions

With the rapid development of genetic technology,the application of genetically modified crops has brought revolutionary changes to the global agricultural production and agricultural trade patterns,and has played an important role in ensuring human health,environmental safety and sustainable agricultural development.In order to strengthen genetically modified organisms(GMO)safety management,countries around the world have formulated GMO safety management policies adapted to their own national conditions with reference to internationally accepted practices.In this study,we carried out comparative studies among the United States,the European Union,Japan and other developed countries or regions and China from the aspects of regulations and management institutions,safety evaluation systems,and label management,so as to provide references for the improvement of China's GMO safety management policies.

An International Comparison on Academic Profession＇ Management Mode

Academic profession＇s management modes in western developed countriesinclude three types： American-German mode,French mode and British mode. They have obvious Features and Experience. Their standards of qualification and consummate the engagement system for faculty are clear; training system is consummate; academic profession develops fast and performance evaluation is very solid. Therefore, it is worthy to learn from such modes to Ameliorate the management and promote the development of academic profession in our country

A Comparison of Chinese and English Classroom Management:A Case Study of“Are Our Kids Tough Enough?”

In the documentary Are Our Kids Tough Enough,five Chinese teachers went to teach at a High School in Hampshire,England,and had a final assessment comparison of the quality of teaching with the English teachers.The collision of different cultures in the documentary has caused people to ponder over education both at home and abroad.This study explores effective classroom strategies and the positive role of cross-cultural factors in Chinese and English classroom management models to build an effective and dynamic classroom.Through a comparative study of Chinese and English classroom management models,this paper mainly finds out that English teachers tend to be more free-ranging in classroom management.Besides,the classroom atmosphere is relaxed,and students are active in thinking,but not concentrative.Chinese teachers,on the other hand,tend to have very serious management styles,and set strict discipline in the classroom.They concentrate under high pressure and,to a certain extent,suppress students’flexibility.In addition,this paper also elaborated three elements which are closely related to classroom management:(1).Teaching methods;(2).Teaching activity design;(3).Assessment.Through the comparative study,we find that Chinese classroom management model is more rigid,in which teachers can easily grasp the situation,but the classroom atmosphere is not very active.The British classroom management model is more flexible;students will not be too constrained,and classroom atmosphere is more active.But this has higher request to the teacher’s classroom management ability:avoiding loss of control of the classroom discipline.

Contrast and Comparison Between the Old and New Bar Code for Commodity Management Measures

With the development of socialism market economy, the former Bar Code ForCommodity Management Measures (being called Old Measures for short hereafter) issued by the NationalBureau of Quality and Technical Supervision can not adapt to the requirement of managing for barcode for commodity. Therefore, for the purpose of standardize bar code for commodity managementstandard, ensuring its quality, speeding up the application of it in electronic business andcirculating field and accelerating the course of being a well informed country, a new Bar Code ForCommodity Management Measures (New Measures for short) has been issued by the General Administratorof Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of P.R. China (AQSIQ) on May 30th, 2005, and putinto force in October, 2005. At the same time, the Old Measures issued on July 3rd, 1998 has beenabolished.

International Comparison,Regional Characteristics and Regulatory Management of Structural Rise in the Prices of Chinese Industrial and Agricultural Products

China's price fluctuations increasingly exhibit significant structural characteristics,and since 2003,there have been several rounds of significant structural price rise.The degree of structural rise in the prices of industrial and agricultural products in China is not only higher than in the general developed countries and developing countries,but also more prominent than in other transition economies.And the structural rise in the prices of Chinese industrial and agricultural products exhibits significant economic zone differences:the structural fluctuations are the greatest in the central and western regions,significantly higher than in the eastern regions as well as the national average.From the perspective of causes of structural rise in the prices of Chinese industrial and agricultural products,the government must aim to coordinate the industrial and agricultural investments and bridge the gap in the industrial and agricultural technologies and supply capacity.

Stochastic and Distributed Optimal Energy Management of Active Distribution Networks Within Integrated Office Buildings

This paper proposes a stochastic and distributed optimal energy management approach for active distribution networks(ADNs)within office buildings.The proposed approach aims at scheduling office buildings fitted with heating ventilation and air conditioning(HVAC)systems,and electric vehicle(EV)charging piles,to participate in the ADN optimization.First,an energy management approach for the ADN with aggregated office buildings is proposed.And the ADN optimization model is formulated considering the detailed building thermal dynamics and the mobile behaviors of workers.Then,to consider un-certainties of photovoltaic(PV)power,scenario-based stochastic programming is integrated into the ADN optimization model.To further realize the stochastic energy management of the ADN within office buildings in a distributed manner,the alternating direction method of multipliers(ADMM)is used to solve the ADN optimization model.The original ADN optimization problem is divided into the network-side and the building-side sub-problems to effectively protect the privacy of the ADN and the office buildings.Finally,the ADN optimization model incorporating office buildings is validated in the winter by numerical studies.In addition,the impacts of comfort temperature range and expected state of charge(SOC)at departure are analyzed.Index Terms—ADN,EV,HVAC system,Office building,Stochastic and distributed energy management.

Energy Management of Price-maker Community Energy Storage by Stochastic Dynamic Programming

In this paper,we propose an analytical stochastic dynamic programming(SDP)algorithm to address the optimal management problem of price-maker community energy storage.As a price-maker,energy storage smooths price differences,thus decreasing energy arbitrage value.However,this price-smoothing effect can result in significant external welfare changes by reduc-ing consumer costs and producer revenues,which is not negligible for the community with energy storage systems.As such,we formulate community storage management as an SDP that aims to maximize both energy arbitrage and community welfare.To incorporate market interaction into the SDP format,we propose a framework that derives partial but sufficient market information to approximate impact of storage operations on market prices.Then we present an analytical SDP algorithm that does not require state discretization.Apart from computational efficiency,another advantage of the analytical algorithm is to guide energy storage to charge/discharge by directly comparing its current marginal value with expected future marginal value.Case studies indicate community-owned energy storage that maximizes both arbitrage and welfare value gains more benefits than storage that maximizes only arbitrage.The proposed algorithm ensures optimality and largely reduces the computational complexity of the standard SDP.Index Terms-Analytical stochastic dynamic programming,energy management,energy storage,price-maker,social welfare.

Edge Intelligence Assisted Resource Management for Satellite Communication

Satellite communication has been seen as a vital part of the sixth generation communication,which greatly extends network coverage.In satellite communication,resource management is a key problem attracting many research interests.However,previous study mainly focuses on throughput improvement via power allocation and spectrum assignment and the proposed approaches are mostly model-based and dedicated to specific problem structures.Fortunately,with the trend of edge intelligence,complex resource management problems can be efficiently resolved in a model-free manner.In this paper,a joint beam activation,user-beam association and time resource allocation approach is proposed.The core idea is using stochastic learning at the ground station to identify active user-link beams to meet user rate demand.In addition,the convergence,optimality and complexity of our proposal are rigorously discussed.By simulation,it is shown that the rate goal of most of the users can be met and meanwhile satellite energy is saved owing to much less active beams.

Comparative Analysis and Assessment of States’ Traffic Management Center Programs

This research presents a step-by-step guideline for traffic data collection standards set by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). This study reviews manual and automatic methods of traffic counting and provides detailed information on traffic volume and vehicle classification studies. This research also provides a detailed analysis of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT)-TMC (Transportation Management Center) websites and compares it to selected Department of Transportation websites of other states such as Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and Virginia. The purpose of the comparison is to analyze the data sources;user friendliness, accessibility, types of data available, presentation formats, and style for each state to determine how they compared to DelDOT-TMC. Although there were some similarities, the findings suggest that two major differences are present. The overall results revealed that DelDOT-TMC provides limited traffic and roadway weather data, and presentation formats to the public as compared to the other states. Further, a unitless variable, called the Capacity Factor (Q), has been developed within this study to represent this relative comparison. This study shows that DelDOT TMC performs well within the group of selected states and better than selected states of similar size and most selected states of larger size;where only Virginia performs better then DelDOT TMC. DelDOT TMC does not perform as well as selected neighboring states;however, it performs in an acceptable range relative to neighboring states.

Modeling a Dynamic Supply Chain Management System for an Utility Company in Nigeria

Service and repair companies, big stores, industries and power companies having complex issues on inventory brought this idea for solution. The inventory department of PHCN generating unit has obsolete and sometimes non-availability of materials. The company faces maintenance, repairs, replacement demands and outage-related problems. In order to cater for these demands, some classifications that would aid PHCN in making effective decisions as regards spare or service parts were made. This research has developed inventory control system that provides automated inventory management system and graphical interface ability for decision making. This is to “right-size” inventories such that the total level of inventory held can be reduced and replenished without exposing the company to risk of stock-out. The system is a model for dynamic supply chain management using spare parts inventory policy tools to enable PHCN to dynamically perform continuous review, one to one lot, service differentiation, backordering, demand lead time, threshold rationing and clearing mechanism.

Empirical Analysis on Asset Impairment and Earnings Management under the Background of Accounting Standards Variance

Earning management is a pioneering research subject and a world problem rising in international economics and accounting field since 1980s. It is also common in listed companies of our country and has a degree of adverse effect on sound operation of market economy. The exploration on earning management firstly is based on knowing the related research achievements at home and abroad to compare the environment and background of different theories generating. Then the paper starts from the definition to analyze the effect of concrete accounting standards on earning management complemented with the proof of cases. Lastly, the paper analyzes the data of some listed companies from 2008 to 2011 with empirical method, and verifies the effect of implementing asset impairment criteria on earning management of listed companies from the view of industry. Focusing on the comparative study of industries, the paper draws valuableconclusion which is consistent with the real situation, and the paper refines the research of domestic earning management.

Comparative Analysis on Pesticide Management System between America and China

The production and usage amount of pesticides in US rank the leading position in the world. On the basis of protecting the environment and human health, US government has enacted a series of laws and regulations to normalize and manage the production and use of pesticides so as to ensure the development of modern agriculture. In this paper, US pesticide management system is briefly reviewed and compared with the pesticide management system of China, which may provide good reference for china in establishing its own management system and make steps towards the international standard.

Real-time Energy Management of Low-carbon Ship Microgrid Based on Data-driven Stochastic Model Predictive Control

With increasing restrictions on ship carbon emis-sions,it has become a trend for ships to use zero-carbon energy such as solar to replace traditional fossil energy.However,uncer-tainties of solar energy and load affect safe and stable operation of the ship microgrid.In order to deal with uncertainties and real-time requirements and promote application of ship zero-carbon energy,we propose a real-time energy management strategy based on data-driven stochastic model predictive control.First,we establish a ship photovoltaic and load scenario set consid-ering time-sequential correlation of prediction error through three steps.Three steps include probability prediction,equal probability inverse transformation scenario set generation,and simultaneous backward method scenario set reduction.Second,combined with scenario prediction information and rolling op-timization feedback correction,we propose a stochastic model predictive control energy management strategy.In each scenario,the proposed strategy has the lowest expected operational cost of control output.Then,we train the random forest machine learn-ing regression algorithm to carry out multivariable regression on samples generated by running the stochastic model predictive control.Finally,a low-carbon ship microgrid with photovoltaic is simulated.Simulation results demonstrate the proposed strategy can achieve both real-time application of the strategy,as well as operational cost and carbon emission optimization performance close to stochastic model predictive control.Index Terms-Data-driven stochastic model predictive control,low-carbon ship microgrid,machine learning,real-time energy management,time-sequential correlation.

INTELLIGENT SIMULATION FOR ALTERNATIVES COMPARISON AND APPLICATION TO AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

We present a simulation run allocation scheme for improving efficiency in simulation experiments for decision making under uncertainty. This scheme is called Optimal Computing Budget Allocation (OCBA). OCBA advances the state-of-the-art by intelligently allocating a computing budget to the candidate alternatives under evaluation. The basic idea is to spend less computational effort on simulating non-critical alternatives to save computation cost. In particular, OCBA is employed to intelligently provide the smallest number of simulation runs for a desired accuracy. In this paper, we present a new and more general OCBA scheme which can consider cases that users are interested not only the best design, but also any one in a good design set. In addition, this paper also presents the application of our OCBA to a design problem in US air traffic management. The national air traffic system in US is modeled as a large, complex, and stochastic network. The numerical examples show that the computation time can be reduced by 54% to 88% with the use of OCBA.

Risk Management for International Portfolios with Basket Options:A Multi-Stage Stochastic Programming Approach

The authors consider the problem of active international portfolio management with basket options to achieve optimal asset allocation and combined market risk and currency risk management via multi-stage stochastic programming(MSSP). The authors note particularly the novel consideration and signi?cant bene?t of basket options in the context of portfolio optimization and risk management.Extensive empirical tests strongly demonstrate that basket options consistently have more clearly improvement on portfolio performances than a portfolio of vanilla options written on the same underlying assets. The authors further show that the MSSP model provides as a supportive tool for asset allocation,and a suitable test bed to empirically investigate the performance of alternative strategies.

The Impact of General Correlation Under Multi-Period Mean-Variance Asset-Liability Portfolio Management

This paper studies the multi-period mean-variance(MV)asset-liability portfolio management problem(MVAL),in which the portfolio is constructed by risky assets and liability.It is worth mentioning that the impact of general correlation is considered,i.e.,the random returns of risky assets and the liability are not only statistically correlated to each other but also correlated to themselves in different time periods.Such a model with a general correlation structure extends the classical multiperiod MVAL models with assumption of independent returns.The authors derive the explicit portfolio policy and the MV efficient frontier for this problem.Moreover,a numerical example is presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed solution scheme.