THINGS†

A concept of concrete object, or thing, is built that turns out to subsume the special concepts of thing found in the sciences. The construction proceeds in three stages. In the first, the concept of a substantial individual is introduced as anything that can combine with other individuals. The set of individuals is assigned the semi-group structure, and a number of notions, in particular those of part and of aggregate, are defined. In the second phase the notion of a substantial property, as different from that of attribute, is characterized. It is construed as a function on the set of substantial individuals. The assumption is made that properties are all definite and that they can conjoin but not disjoin; nor are negative properties countenanced. Further, the notions of.property precedence and of property neighbourhood are defined. It is postulated that substantial properties come in clusters. Laws are counted as special properties, namely as functional relations among substantial properties. In the third stage the notion of state is introduced and a thing is defined as a substantial individual equipped with all its possible states. Natural kinds or species are then defined with the help of the concept of a law, namely as the sets of things satisfying certain laws. The real world is assumed to be unique and to be constituted by things alone. Finally the notion of a concrete system is defined as a set of things together with the set of connections among them. The paper employs elementary logical, algebraic and set theoretical notions, and is hoped to belong in exact philosophy.     

Schematic classification problems and their solution

The necessity arises in a variety of tasks to classify items on the basis of the presence of one of a number of criterial sets of co-related feature values. Such sets are called class characteristics. Because such classification problems require the identification of characteristics on the basis of limited training information, they entail a difficult search problem. Consideration of the differences between the theoretical models underlying characteristic and volume pattern generators suggests a schematic approach. Schemata, sets of commonly co-occuring features values, are probabilistic indicators of class membership whenever the characteristics are unknown but the characteristic model prevails. Formal and algorithmic solutions to the classification problem when exemplars are simple (consist only of M feature or attribute values) are described. The relevance of these procedures to problems involving general (relational) data structures is also indicated.     

Open ended intelligence: the individuation of intelligent agents

Artificial general intelligence is a field of research aiming to distil the principles of intelligence that operate independently of a specific problem domain and utilise these principles in order to synthesise systems capable of performing any intellectual task a human being is capable of and beyond. While “narrow” artificial intelligence which focuses on solving specific problems such as speech recognition, text comprehension, visual pattern recognition and robotic motion has shown impressive breakthroughs lately, understanding general intelligence remains elusive. We propose a paradigm shift from intelligence perceived as a competence of individual agents defined in relation to an a priori given problem domain or a goal, to intelligence perceived as a formative process of self-organisation. We call this process open-ended intelligence. Starting with a brief introduction of the current conceptual approach, we expose a number of serious limitations that are traced back to the ontological roots of the concept of intelligence. Open-ended intelligence is then developed as an abstraction of the process of human cognitive development, so its application can be extended to general agents and systems. We introduce and discuss three facets of the idea: the philosophical concept of individuation, sense-making and the individuation of general cognitive agents. We further show how open-ended intelligence can be framed in terms of a distributed, self-organising network of interacting elements and how such process is scalable. The framework highlights an important relation between coordination and intelligence and a new understanding of values.     

基于SRMET的软件可靠性测试研究

SRMET测试工具作为研究对象,阐述了软件可靠性测试理论,采用SRMET3.0进行可靠性评估,得到了可靠性评估指标。     

人和人工智能系统的概念形成过程研究

概念的形成是实现人工智能的基础,为研究人工智能系统中概念的形成过程,从人对事物形成概念的过程出发进行了研究。比较人和人工智能系统的概念形成过程得到了如下特点:人的优势在于能自主地确定对象表象和对象功能中的各种特征和划分等,能在对象、描述性定义和功能性定义对应关系不完备情况下通过思维和联想建立概念;人工智能系统的优势在于丰富的对象表象感知能力,对象的各种特征和划分的长期存储、运算和分析能力;而人工智能的概念形成过程存在的缺点基本与人的概念形成过程的优点对应。因此本文认为人工智能的概念形成过程必须关注因素的智能识别、功能的系统实践和人经验知识的有师学习。现有技术在缺乏人经验知识的情况下,人工智能系统不能自主建立概念和知识库,不能实现智能过程。     

Delay-Insensitivity and Semi-Modularity

The study of asynchronous circuit behaviors in the presence of component and wire delays has received a great deal of attention. In this paper, we consider asynchronous circuits whose components can be any non-deterministic sequential machines of the Moore type, and describe a formal model for these circuits and their behaviors under the inertial delay model.We model an asynchronous circuit C by a network N of modules with delays associated with its components and/or wires. We compute the behavior of N assuming arbitrary inertial delays in the modules, and take this behavior to be correct. We define N to be strongly delay-insensitive if its behavior remains correct in the presence of arbitrary stray delays, where correctness is defined through the notion of observational equivalence (or bisimulation), one of the strongest forms of behavioral equivalence. We introduce the notion of quasi semi-modularity, which generalizes Muller's definition of semi-modularity to non-deterministic networks. We prove that a circuit, with all the wire delays taken into account, is strongly delay-intensitive if and only if its behavior is quasi semi-modular.     

Biomechanical analysis of materials handling manipulators in short distance transfers of moderate mass objects: joint strength,spine forces and muscular antagonism

Although often suggested as a control measure to alleviate musculoskeletal stresses, the use of mechanical assistance devices (i.e. manipulators) in load transfers has not been extensively studied. Without data describing the biomechanical effects of such devices, justification for decisions regarding implementation of such tools is difficult. An experimental study of two types of mechanical manipulators (articulated arm and overhead hoist) was conducted to determine whether biomechanical stresses, and hence injury risk, would be alleviated. Short distance transfers of loads with moderate mass were performed both manually and with manipulator assistance under a variety of task conditions. Using analysis and output from new dynamic torso models, strength demands at the shoulders and low back, lumbar spine forces, and lumbar muscle antagonism were determined. Strength requirements decreased significantly at both the shoulders and low back when using either manipulator in comparison with similar transfers performed manually. Peak spine compression and anteriorposterior (a-p) shear forces were reduced by about 40% on average, and these reductions were shown to be primarily caused by decreases in hand forces and resultant spinal moments. Two metrics of muscular antagonism were defined, and analysis showed that torso muscle antagonism was largest overall when using the hoist. The results overall suggest that hoist-assisted transfers, although better in reducing spine compression forces, may impose relatively higher demands on coordination and/or stability at extreme heights or with torso twisting motions. The relatively higher strength requirements and spine compression associated with the articulated arm may be a result of the high inertia of the system. Potential benefits of practice and training are discussed, and conclusions regarding implementation of mechanical manipulators are given.     

LMI-based H ∞ synchronization of second-order neutral master-slave systems using delayed output feedback control

The H _∞ synchronization problem of the master and slave structure of a second-order neutral master-slave systems with time-varying delays is presented in this paper. Delay-dependent sufficient conditions for the design of a delayed output-feedback control are given by Lyapunov-Krasovskii method in terms of a linear matrix inequality (LMI). A controller, which guarantees H _∞ synchronization of the master and slave structure using some free weighting matrices, is then developed. A numerical example has been given to show the effectiveness of the method. The simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Recommended by Editorial Board member Bin Jiang under the direction of Editor Jae Weon Choi. This research has been partially funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Center 637 ‘Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes: A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations’ (SFB 637). This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60504008), by the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20070213084), by the Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation (111064). Hamid Reza Karimi born in 1976, received the B.Sc. degree in Power Systems Engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 1998 and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees both in Control Systems Engineering from University of Tehran in 2001 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2007, he was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow of the Alexander-von-Humboldt Stiftung with both Technical University of Munich and University of Bremen in Germany. He held positions as Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Tehran in Iran, Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Industrial Mathematics of the University of Bremen in Germany and Research Fellow of Juan de la Cierva program at the Department of Electronics, Informatics and Automation of the University of Girona in Spain before he was appointed as an Associate Professor in Control Systems at the Faculty of Technology and Science of the University of Agder in Norway in April 2009. His research interests are in the areas of nonlinear systems, networked control systems, robust filter design and vibration control of flexible structures with an emphasis on applications in engineering. Dr. Karimi was the recipient of the German Academic Awards (DAAD Award) from 2003 to 2005 and was a recipient of the Distinguished Researcher Award from University of Tehran in 2001 and 2005. He received the Distinguished PhD Award of the Iranian President in 2005 and the Iranian Students Book Agency’s Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in 2007. He also received first rank of Juan de la Cierva research program in the field of Electrical, Electronic and Automation Engineering in Spain in 2007. Huijun Gao was born in Heilongjiang Province, China, in 1976. He received the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Shenyang University of Technology, Shengyang, China, in 2001 and the Ph.D. degree in Control Science and Engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China, in 2005. He was a Research Associate with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, from November 2003 to August 2004. From October 2005 to September 2007, he carried out his postdoctoral research with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada, supported by an Alberta Ingenuity Fellowship and an Honorary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship. Since November 2004, he has been with Harbin Institute of Technology, where he is currently a Professor. His research interests include network-based control, robust control/filter theory, model reduction, time-delay systems, multidimensional systems, and their engineering applications. Dr. Gao is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics Part B: Cybernetics, the Journal of Intelligent and Robotics Systems, the Circuits, System and Signal Processing etc. He serves on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Systems Science, the Journal of the Franklin Institute etc. He was the recipient of the University of Alberta Dorothy J. Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow Prize in 2005 and was a corecipient of the National Natural Science Award of China in 2008. He was a recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund in 2008 and the National Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award in 2007. He was an outstanding reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and Automatica in 2008 and 2007 respectively, and an appreciated reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing in 2006.     

Interface as Exordium: The Rhetoric of Interactivity

In this article, I outline how the interface of new media functions rhetorically as an exordium to engage users and to dispose them to persuasion. The modular, networked, and interactive nature of new media requires an interface: a central place of interaction for the technological, human, social, and cultural aspects of new media. I propose that the interface functions rhetorically through three modes of interactivity, including multi-directionality, manipulability, and presence. By understanding these modes of interactivity and how they function to create various degrees of interaction and engagement, we can begin to develop the analytic tools needed to increase critical awareness of the interface. A rhetorical understanding of the interface enables us and our students to see that the shape and design of the interface is not natural and inevitable. The design of the interface is a design of human experience and, as such, the interface becomes a locus of power. The modes of interactivity it deploys are capable of enabling empowerment and enacting rhetorical patterns of control.     

可拓聚类的科教人际网络节点重要性动态分析方法

目前大多数研究对复杂社会网络关键节点影响力的识别都是静态的，缺乏动态变化的分析。采用可拓聚类方法对动态变化下的科教人际网络进行量化分析，首先以多属性决策法计算每个节点重要性，再利用变异系数权重法计算得该节点综合重要性量值，之后划分等级并取标准正域和正域区间，利用可拓关联函数计算每个节点与每个等级的关联度，关联度值最大的等级即为该节点对应等级，最后分析同一社会网络节点在不同时间点的重要性等级变化。可拓聚类方法尝试从动态上对网络节点重要性进行把握，最后通过实例验证了该方法的有效性。