An integrative conceptual framework of disability: New directions for research.

Advances in research on disability and rehabilitation are essential to creating equal opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, and full participation for persons with disabilities. Historically, such initiatives have focused on separate and specific areas, including neuroscience, molecular biology and genetics, gerontology, engineering and physical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences. Research on persons with disabilities should examine the broader context and trends of society that affect the total environment of persons with disabilities. This article examines the various disability paradigms across time, assessing the relative contribution of the socioecological perspective in guiding research designed to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. The authors recommend new research directions that include a focus on life span issues, biomedicine, biotechnology, the efficacy and effectiveness of current interventions, an emphasis on consumer-driven investigations within a socioecological perspective of disability, and the implications for research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Representing temporal knowledge in conceptual graphs

This study was motivated by some difficulties encountered by the authors when trying to express temporal knowledge using Sowa's conceptual graph (CG) approach. An overview of Sowa's approach is given and the difficulties encountered when trying to model temporal knowledge are outlined: the disparity of notations allowed by CG theory for expressing temporal information; the ambiguity and incompleteness of tense sspecification; the difficulty of harmonizing tenses and intergraph temporal relations. Various approaches suggested for representing time both in artificial intelligence and linguistics are presented, and an extension to Sowa's approach is proposed in which temporal and nontemporal knowledge are differentiated. In this model points in time are represented as well as time intervals. A semantic interpretation of verbs is provided based on an extension of Reichenbach's model of temporal markers. The authors show how their approach enables the representation of tenses as well as the aspectual properties of natural language sentences.     

Impact of dams on point bar habitat: a case for the extirpation of the Sacramento Valley Tiger Beetle,C. hirticollis abrupta

Quantitative analyses of flow and stage data, remote sensing and geographic information systems analysis, and field studies were used to assess the impact of dams and diversions on the point bar habitat of the Sacramento Valley Tiger Beetle (Cicindela hirticollis abrupta). The reaches of interest include sites of known historic populations of C. h. abrupta along the Sacramento River from approximately 8 km north of Colusa southward to the confluence with the Feather River and along the Feather River between Yuba City and its confluence with the Sacramento River. The results from this study show that construction of two major dams has altered flows such that prolonged and increased flows during summer, fall, and early winter have most likely disrupted life cycles, flooded larvae, drowned overwintering adults and led to high mortality. Additionally, habitat availability has decreased over time because point bars have decreased in number and area causing increased distances between populations and isolation of populations. Moreover, point bar armouring, channel scouring, altered flows, redirected flows through weirs, and lithologic controls have produced a bimodal distribution of mean grain sizes in the Sacramento River in which the more northern bars contain gravel deposits and more southern bars possess fine sands. These conditions negatively alter moisture retention and sediment compaction and, consequently, burrowing conditions needed by this tiger beetle. Additionally, more stabilized flows (reduced variability) and increased fine‐grained deposition have enabled development and encroachment of vegetation onto the sand bars. Finally, human stresses, such as foot traffic and vehicular traffic may have interfered with burrowing, ovipositing, and foraging. The combination of these stress factors has most likely led to a reduction in source populations and, ultimately, the apparent extirpation of the entire metapopulation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

承压水漏斗地区地下水位时空分布预报的BP网络模型

依据水均衡原理，导出承压水漏斗区任意一点水位与其影响因素之间的复杂的非线性关系，在此基础上提出承压水漏斗水位时空分布预报的BP神经网络模型。该模型具有 分布参数模型的特征，且不需用到区域的水文地质参数。最后针对某实例进行了模型设计及预报分析，通过对部分观测井后期实测数据的训练，优选出双隐层的网络结构及其网络参数。随后用这些观测井的前3年数据进行了检验，并对其他观测井数据进行预报。计算表明，该模型对地下水位拟合与预报的合格率较高，可以获得研究区域某一时刻水位在空间上的分布。     

小型微/纳米级三坐标测量机的研制

介绍一套低成本小型三维坐标测量机的研制过程，作为微/纳米级超精密测量设备，整体机台结构采用花岗岩材料；X／Y轴的移动平台利用压电材料摩擦驱动与挠性变形原理，长短两行程可达25mm范围及5nm的微位移，藉自行研发的衍射干涉激光尺，位置回馈测量系统可具有0．025nm的分辨率；测量探头在一般DVD光读取头的自动聚焦原理基础上改装，最佳分辨率可达2．5nm，该雏形机适于测量微机电组件、微型器件及膜厚等。     

PERFORMANCE OF THREE STAGE TURBO－EQUALIZATION－DECODING

An increasing demand for high data rate transmission and protection over bandlimited channels with severe inter-symbol interference has resulted in a flurry of activity to improve channel equalization. In conjunction with equalization, channel coding-decoding can be employed to improve system performance. In this letter, the performance of the three stageturbo-equalization-decoding employing log maximum a posteriori probability is experimentally evaluated by a fading simulator. The BER is evaluated using various information sequence and interleaver sizes taking into account that the communication medium is a noisy inter symbol interference channel.     

采用多级技术的DBF雷达CCAB算法

数字波束形成算法中,CCAB算法在较高信干噪比条件下具有一定优势。但是计算时需要求逆矩阵,在阵元数较多的情形下运算量极大,很难实时实现,严重制约了其进一步的应用。提出了一种基于原有CCAB算法的多级计算方法,可以有效地减少运算量。实验表明,该方法虽然其信噪比性能比普通CCAB算法有所下降,但是仍能在干扰方向上形成较深的零陷并有效地抑制干扰,能够进一步应用于实际工程中。     

Distinctiveness and Correlation in Conceptual Structure: Behavioral and Computational Studies.

Patients with category-specific deficits have motivated a range of hypotheses about the structure of the conceptual system. One class of models claims that apparent category dissociations emerge from the internal structure of concepts rather than fractionation of the system into separate substores. This account claims that distinctive properties of concepts in the living domain are vulnerable because of their weak correlation with other features. Given the assumption that mutual activation among correlated properties produces faster activation in the normal system, the authors predicted a disadvantage for the distinctive features of living things for unimpaired adults. Results of a speeded feature verification study supported this prediction, as did a computational simulation in which networks mapped from orthography to semantics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Characterisation of a 300× photovoltaic concentrator system with one-axis tracking

A solar concentrator with one-axis tracking is being developed at our institute. This concentrator system achieves a high geometrical concentration ratio of 300 using a parabolic trough mirror and a three-dimensional second stage consisting of compound parabolic concentrators. The design of the system as well as the characterisation of the second stage is described in this paper.