Weighted Superposition Attraction (WSA): A swarm intelligence algorithm for optimization problems – Part 2: Constrained optimization

This paper is the second one of the two papers entitled “Weighted Superposition Attraction (WSA) Algorithm”, which is about the performance evaluation of the WSA algorithm in solving the constrained global optimization problems. For this purpose, the well-known mechanical design optimization problems, design of a tension/compression coil spring, design of a pressure vessel, design of a welded beam and design of a speed reducer, are selected as test problems. Since all these problems were formulated as constrained global optimization problems, WSA algorithm requires a constraint handling method for tackling them. For this purpose we have selected 6 formerly developed constraint handling methods for adapting into WSA algorithm and analyze the effect of the used constraint handling method on the performance of the WSA algorithm. In other words, we have the aim of producing concluding remarks over the performance and robustness of the WSA algorithm through a set of computational study in solving the constrained global optimization problems. Computational study indicates the robustness and the effectiveness of the WSA in terms of obtained results, reached level of convergence and the capability of coping with the problems of premature convergence, trapping in a local optima and stagnation.     

A smoothing inexact Newton method for variational inequality problems

In this paper, we reformulate the variational inequality problem as an equivalent smooth non-linear equation system by introducing the Chen–Harker–Kanzow–Smale smoothing function. A new smoothing inexact Newton algorithm is proposed to solve the smooth equations. In each iteration, the corresponding linear system is solved approximately. We prove that the proposed algorithm converges globally and superlinearly under mild conditions. Preliminary numerical results indicate that the method is effective.     

Transport,energy and global climate change

Energy has been remarkably cheap, and the community has come to believe that the supply of energy is completely reliable. The low cost of energy is reflected in the design of transport systems and cities. In the near future, energy is likely to become very expensive and less reliable, and at the same time there is growing concern about the environmental damage created by fossil fuels. This study examines the impact of those changes, and considers how future cities can be redesigned to account for it. It argues that redesign could minimise the role of the private car, and that at the same time cities would become more pleasant and more interesting.     

Wearing Memories: Clothing and the Global Lives of Mourning in Swaziland

Abstract

This article situates a cultural phenomenon of women’s memory work through clothing in Swaziland. It explores clothing as both action and object of everyday, personalized practice that constitutes psychosocial well-being and material proximities between the living and the dead, namely, in how clothing of the deceased is privately possessed and ritually manipulated by the bereaved. While human and spiritual self-other relations are produced through clothing and its material efficacy, current global ideologies of immaterial mortuary ritual associated with Pentecostalism have emerged as contraries to this local, intersubjective grief work. This article describes how such contrarian ideologies paper over existing global aspects of people’s entangled relations with the dead – in three biographies of women and their objects – thus showing that memory work is not limited to people, goods, or ideas that flow between nations and expanding notions of the global and gendered practices of personhood.     

Short-term youth mission practice and the visualization of global christianity

ABSTRACT

This article examines the visual mediation of evangelical short-term mission and the theologically inflected global imaginary that these forms engender. Recent decades have seen the resurgence of long-term mission and the emergence of short-term mission among US Christians. The latter, combining evangelization, service, and tourism, is a staple within evangelical youth culture. I argue that it is used by Christians to constitute themselves as global formations, while also offering theological frames for global Christianity. Central to this global theological imaginary are visual representations of mission encounters with ethnic, sectarian, and racial Others, which illustrate the global scope of mission and missionaries’ understandings of their own efforts to engage and overcome those differences. Through an analysis of the visual content of four short-term mission agencies’ websites, I examine the mediation of global Christianity in contemporary mission and its recruitment of global Christian subjects.     

District-scale simulation for multi-purpose evaluation of urban energy systems

This article presents a simulation model for application to several commercial sector buildings in a particular area to analyse the impact of changes in buildings and building energy systems on the issue domains of mitigation of global warming and heat island phenomena as well as the planning of urban infrastructures for electricity and water. The impact on these issue domains is evaluated using five indicators: primary energy consumption, carbon dioxide emission, sensible anthropogenic heat release, peak electricity demand and water consumption by cooling towers. This article explains the modelling methodology, the simulation model including databases and a case study carried out to demonstrate the simulation capacity of the model. The case study shows that the form and function of buildings influence energy consumption and the five indicators significantly. The trade-off relationship is also shown between the five indicators with respect to changes in the heat-source system of buildings.     

基于Geomagic对多个扫描数据精确注册过程的实现

利用逆向工程软件Geomagic Studio对多个扫描数据进行精确拼接,通过点云的过滤、手动注册、全局注册一系列过程,阐述了对于多个扫描数据精确注册过程的实现。     

煤基合成气一步法制二甲醚的宏观动力学

在内循环无梯度反应器中,温度220~260 ℃、空速1 000~3 000 h-1、压力5 MPa的条件下,研究了质量比为1∶1的混合型双功能催化剂上合成气一步法制二甲醚的宏观动力学,考察了温度、空速等条件对反应性能的影响。选取Langmuir-Hinshelwood双曲型动力学模型,采用麦夸特法对宏观动力学模型进行了参数估值,获得动力学模型的参数。统计检验和残差分析结果表明模型是适宜的。     

世界城市研究的转型、反思与上海建设世界城市的探讨

1950年代以后,新国际劳动分工的发展促进了全球经济的融合,在经济联系和互动的进程中形成了世界城市及世界城市网络,该领域成为国际学术界研究的重点。在对相关研究综述之后认为,世界城市研究越来越呈现多元化的特征;同时认为,传统世界城市研究具有"表征替代内涵"的嫌疑,包括:①仅关注高端服务业和高端城市,忽略了发展中国家制造业城市的快速兴起;②忽视了1990年代信息产业的兴起对全球经济的重大作用,包括知识经济时代知识、技术控制力的巨大作用,网络社会及浮现的信息化城市在世界城市体系重构中的作用等;③仅讨论自上而下的全球化力量对世界经济格局及世界城市体系发展的推动,却忽略了自下而上的本地化发展力量。最后认为,在以价值链组织生产的当今,制造业、服务业产业融合发展的态势越来越明显,城市-区域的功能联系日益紧密。具体到中国,社会经济整体仍处于工业化发展阶段,其城市经济发展与西方国家必然存在较大差异,城市-区域发展的背景亦决定了中国的世界城市建设必须赋予工业化的特性,并以上海市为例进行分析。