Developing community codes for materials modeling

For this article, we call scientific software a community code if it is freely available, written by a team of developers who welcome user input, and has attracted users beyond the developers. There are obviously many such materials modeling codes. The authors have been part of such efforts for many years in the field of atomistic simulation, specifically for two community codes, the LAMMPS and GULP packages for molecular dynamics and lattice dynamics respectively. Here we highlight lessons we have learned about how to create such codes and the pros and cons of being part of a community effort. Many of our experiences are similar, but we also have some differences of opinion (like modeling vs modelling). Our hope is that readers will find these lessons useful as they design, implement, and distribute their own materials modelling software for others to use.     

Optical implementation of fuzzy-logic controllers. Part II

In part I of a previous study [Appl. Opt. 37, 6937 (1998)] we introduced what is believed to be a novel two-dimensional (2-D) fuzzy-logic optical controller. The complexity of such a setup when we deal with an N-dimensional control procedure leads to a more compact version both in planning demands and in space. Viewing the pros and cons of the 2-D setup, we seek a simpler model and find it in a one- dimensional (1-D) multilayer setup. Here we explain the process of finding the optimal 1-D setup and support the concept with true optical results. The new 1-D optical controller is modular and easy to build, and the results that it yields are quite satisfactory.     

Understanding the acceptance of emotional artificial intelligence in Japanese healthcare system: A cross-sectional survey of clinic visitors’ attitude

Despite having one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world, Japan is expected to experience a shortage of nearly half a million healthcare workers by 2025 due to its rapidly aging population. In response, government authorities plan to implement a wide range of AI-driven healthcare solutions. These include care robots that assist the physically handicapped or elderly, chatbots that provide anonymous online mental health consultation, and diagnostic software utilizing machine learning. Yet one of the most popular smart technologies to augment the nation's already overstrained and undermanned healthcare system is a little known but emerging emotional AI technologies, i.e., deep learning systems trained to read, classify, and respond to human emotions. These technologies are being sold on a commercial level not only to the public but also to rehabilitation centers, local hospitals, and senior citizen residences. Although the augmentation of healthcare services to intelligent machines may seem like a logical step in a country well-known for its long-standing affection toward robots, Japanese society is also known for its adherence to established social relations and traditional institutional practices, especially, in the realm of medical care. In order to gauge Japanese acceptance of emotion-sensing technology, we analyze a dataset of 245 visitors to clinics and hospitals in a typical suburban area in Japan using multiple linear regression. The results show that in general, senior and male patients perceive the emotional AI technology more negatively. For behavioral variables, patients' level of familiarity has positive correlations with attitudes toward emotional AI-based applications in private setting (β_{Familiarity_AttitudePri}=0.346, p<0.001) and public setting (β_{Familiarity_PublicAttitude}=0.297, p<0.001); while concern for losing control to AI has negative correlations with the attitudes' variables: private setting (β_{LosingControl_AttitudePri}=−0.262,p=0.002) and public setting (β _{LosingControl_AttitudePub}=-0.188, p=0.044). Interestingly, concerns over violation of privacy and discrimination are non-significant correlates, which contradict the emerging literature on this subject. We further contextualize the findings with insights afforded by an understanding of Japanese culture as well as the relevant literature on care robots in Japan. Finally, policy and education implications to promote emotional AI acceptance to the general and senior members of the society are provided.     

Pros and Cons: Magnetic versus Optical Microrobots

Mobile microrobotics has emerged as a new robotics field within the last decade to create untethered tiny robots that can access and operate in unprecedented, dangerous, or hard-to-reach small spaces noninvasively toward disruptive medical, biotechnology, desktop manufacturing, environmental remediation, and other potential applications. Magnetic and optical actuation methods are the most widely used actuation methods in mobile microrobotics currently, in addition to acoustic and biological (cell-driven) actuation approaches. The pros and cons of these actuation methods are reported here, depending on the given context. They can both enable long-range, fast, and precise actuation of single or a large number of microrobots in diverse environments. Magnetic actuation has unique potential for medical applications of microrobots inside nontransparent tissues at high penetration depths, while optical actuation is suitable for more biotechnology, lab-/organ-on-a-chip, and desktop manufacturing types of applications with much less surface penetration depth requirements or with transparent environments. Combining both methods in new robot designs can have a strong potential of combining the pros of both methods. There is still much progress needed in both actuation methods to realize the potential disruptive applications of mobile microrobots in real-world conditions.     

What do we expect from robots? Social representations,attitudes and evaluations of robots in daily life

To foresee the potential acceptance, rejection and adaptation of robots in societies, it is necessary to overcome deterministic and linear assumptions and explore the plurality of meanings that shape our relationships with these emerging technologies. With this goal in mind, this study investigates the social representation of robots and its interconnection with attitudes and images, in a convenience sample of young adults in Italy (N = 422). Participants were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire consisting of a free-association task to the word stimulus “robot”, the Robot Attitude Scale, the acceptance of robots in different domains of life and a measure of mind perceptions of robots. The social representation of robots was articulated around three key semantic dimensions opposing: (1) ‘distant/detached’ vs ‘close/integrated’ views; (2) ‘ideal’ vs ‘material’ aspects; (3) assimilation with ‘ICTs’ vs with electric and mechanic ‘devices.’ These three dichotomies defined different positions connected with general attitudes, domain-specific evaluations of robots, and their level of perceived proximity with human beings. In particular, the view of robots as more concrete and integrated objects was related to positive attitudes and acceptance across all considered domains (i.e. Dull/Dirty, Education/Care and Health/Emergency dimensions). In contrast, more distant views were related to negative attitudes. Our study provides insights into how diverse positions could favour or hinder the introduction of robots in different spheres of everyday life.     

Service robots in the hospitality industry: The case of Henn-na hotel,Japan

Services are changing at an impressive pace boosted by the technological advances felt in Robotics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that have uncovered new research opportunities. Our objective is to contribute to the literature by exploring the pros and cons of the use of service robots in the hospitality industry and to practice, by presenting the architectural and technological characteristics of a fully automated plant based on a relevant case. To achieve such goal, this article uses a systematic literature review to assess the state-of-the-art, characterize the unit of analysis, and find new avenues for further research. The results indicate that, in high customer contact settings, service robots tend to outperform humans when performing standardized tasks, because of their mechanical and analytical nature. Evidence also shows that, in some cases, service robots have not yet achieved the desired technological maturity to proficiently replace humans. In other words, the technology is not quite there yet, but this does not contradict the fact that new robot technologies, enabled by AI, will be able to replace the employees’ empathetic intelligence. In practical terms, organizations are facing challenges where they have to decide whether service robots are capable of completely replacing human labor or if they should rather invest in balanced options, such as human-robot systems, that seem to be a much more rational choice today.     

Do socially disruptive technologies really change our concepts or just our conceptions?

New technologies have the potential to severely “challenge” or “disrupt” not only our established social practices but our most fundamental concepts and distinctions like person versus object, nature versus artificial or being dead versus being alive. But does this disruption also change these concepts? Or does it merely change our operationalizations and applications of the same concepts? In this paper, I argue that instead of focusing on individual conceptual change, philosophers of socially disruptive technologies (SDTs) should think about conceptual change as a change in a network of interrelated concepts. What really generates a potential social disruption are changes of inferential relations between concepts – whether or not this entails a change of the respective individual concepts. Philosophers of socially disruptive technologies are therefore in the privileged position of being able to avoid commitments regarding the individuation of individual concepts.     

无人水下航行器的现状与发展趋势

无人水下航行器是当前海军装备发展的热点,其分为非自主式（ROV）和自主式（AUV）2类,本文分别介绍了ROV和AUV的分类与发展特点,比较了ROV与AUV的优势与劣势。     

Local proper generalized decomposition

One of the main difficulties that a reduced‐order method could face is the poor separability of the solution. This problem is common to both a posteriori model order reduction (proper orthogonal decomposition, reduced basis) and a priori [proper generalized decomposition (PGD)] model order reduction. Early approaches to solve it include the construction of local reduced‐order models in the framework of POD. We present here an extension of local models in a PGD—and thus, a priori—context. Three different strategies are introduced to estimate the size of the different patches or regions in the solution manifold where PGD is applied. As will be noticed, no gluing or special technique is needed to deal with the resulting set of local reduced‐order models, in contrast to most proper orthogonal decomposition local approximations. The resulting method can be seen as a sort of a priori manifold learning or nonlinear dimensionality reduction technique. Examples are shown that demonstrate pros and cons of each strategy for different problems.     

On a statistical h index

The measurement of the quality of academic research is a rather controversial issue. Recently Hirsch has proposed a measure that has the advantage of summarizing in a single summary statistics the information that is contained in the citation counts of each scientist. From that seminal paper, a huge amount of research has been lavished, focusing on one hand on the development of correction factors to the h index and on the other hand, on the pros and cons of such measure proposing several possible alternatives. Although the h index has received a great deal of interest since its very beginning, only few papers have analyzed its statistical properties and implications. In the present work we propose a statistical approach to derive the distribution of the h index. To achieve this objective we work directly on the two basic components of the h index: the number of produced papers and the related citation counts vector, by introducing convolution models. Our proposal is applied to a database of homogeneous scientists made up of 131 full professors of statistics employed in Italian universities. The results show that while “sufficient” authors are reasonably well detected by a crude bibliometric approach, outstanding ones are underestimated, motivating the development of a statistical based h index. Our proposal offers such development and in particular confidence intervals to compare authors as well as quality control thresholds that can be used as target values.     

换热器流量分配不均匀性评价方法的比较

介绍换热器的流量分配不均匀性的评价方法,对微通道平行流换热器进行流量分配试验,用不同评价方法对试验数据进行处理,对比6种流量分配不均匀性评价方法的优劣。结果表明,采用相对标准方差衡量流量分配的不均匀性最为合理。     

What is Simulated Annealing?

Beginning in 1983, simulated annealing was marketed as a global optimization methodology that mimics the physical annealing process by which molten substances cool to crystalline lattices of minimal energy. This marketing strategy had a polarizing effect, attracting those who delighted in metaphor and alienating others who found metaphor insufficient at best and facile at worst. In fact, the emotional outbursts that accompany many discussions of simulated annealing are an unfortunate distraction. Whatever its pros and cons, simulated annealing can be grounded in rigorous mathematics. Here we provide an elementary, self-contained introduction to simulated annealing in terms of Markov chains.     

印刷油墨的物理干燥过程与机理

论述了渗透干燥、挥发干燥等物理干燥过程及其机理,并对几种干燥方式的影响因素、适用范围进行了分析论证,希望能对生产实践的补益.     

The State of the Art and Practice in Digital Preservation

The goal of digital preservation is to ensure long-term access to digitally stored information. In this paper, we present a survey of techniques used in digital preservation. We also introduce representative digital preservation projects and case studies that provide insight into the advantages and disadvantages of different preservation strategies. Finally, the pros and cons of current strategies, critical issues for digital preservation, and future directions are discussed.     

Can industrial robots reduce carbon emissions? Based on the perspective of energy rebound effect and labor factor flow in China

China is a major robot-use and carbon-emitting country, and it is imperative to explore industrial robots' impact on carbon emissions to achieve the nation's planned low-carbon transition. Previous studies have neglected to consider the energy rebound stimulating effect of adopting industrial robots. To address this gap, we explored the relationships between industrial robots, carbon emissions, and the energy rebound effect by applying a fixed-effects model that considers cross-sectional dependence, using data from 2008 to 2019. We also analyze the moderating effect of labor factor mobility on industrial robots and regional differences in conjunction with the labor substitution effect of industrial robots. Three relevant conclusions are obtained. First, although using industrial robots reduces carbon emissions, it also leads to an energy rebound effect, partially offsetting industrial robots' carbon reduction performance. Second, the resulting emissions reduction and energy rebound effects in the western region are greater than those in eastern and central regions. This suggests that the use of industrial robots in less industrialized regions could yield better emissions reduction effects but requires awareness and mitigation of potential increased energy consumption. Third, labor factor flow negatively moderates the impact of industrial robots on carbon emissions, indicating that labor flow between cities reinforces the emissions reduction effect of industrial robots. The negative moderating effect of labor factor flow is greatest in the western region compared to eastern and central regions. Thus, we need adequate awareness of the energy rebound effect in the use of industrial robots. Meanwhile, removing barriers to labor flow between cities could further stimulate the carbon reduction effect.     

Between specificity and openness: How architects deal with design-use complexities

Design-use relations are complex: architects influence social outcomes through design without having control over them. Making this complexity explicit during design is important, but difficult. Promising is work on human-technology relations in science and technology studies (STS) and philosophy of technology. With an eye to connecting this theoretical work to design practice, we study what architects already do: how design-use complexities figure during design processes and how architects deal with them. Based on a case study of the design competition for a new media building, we show two lines of reasoning in architects’ anticipation of use: specificity and openness. In doing so, we aim to provide insight into when, where and why they can benefit from STS and philosophical theory.     

Dimensional analysis of spring-wing systems reveals performance metrics for resonant flapping-wing flight

Flapping-wing insects, birds and robots are thought to offset the high power cost of oscillatory wing motion by using elastic elements for energy storage and return. Insects possess highly resilient elastic regions in their flight anatomy that may enable high dynamic efficiency. However, recent experiments highlight losses due to damping in the insect thorax that could reduce the benefit of those elastic elements. We performed experiments on, and simulations of, a dynamically scaled robophysical flapping model with an elastic element and biologically relevant structural damping to elucidate the roles of body mechanics, aerodynamics and actuation in spring-wing energetics. We measured oscillatory flapping-wing dynamics and energetics subject to a range of actuation parameters, system inertia and spring elasticity. To generalize these results, we derive the non-dimensional spring-wing equation of motion and present variables that describe the resonance properties of flapping systems: N, a measure of the relative influence of inertia and aerodynamics, and K^, the reduced stiffness. We show that internal damping scales with N, revealing that dynamic efficiency monotonically decreases with increasing N. Based on these results, we introduce a general framework for understanding the roles of internal damping, aerodynamic and inertial forces, and elastic structures within all spring-wing systems.     

Designing winning robots by careful design of their development process

We present a comprehensive robot development process and its evaluation. We designed this process in the context of a robotics course in high schools. The motivation for designing this new process was improving the robustness and reliability of robots developed by students and preparing students for becoming better designers. The newly designed process proved to be highly successful in designing top quality robots. In the process design, we explored and adapted existing design tools and methods to the specific designers, the nature of the product, the environment, the product needs, and the design context goals. At the end of this thorough design, we selected a synergetic integration of six tools and methods to compose the new comprehensive development process for this product context: conceptual design, fault-tolerant design, atomic requirements, fuzzy logic for control, creative thinking, and microprogramming-based design. The design skills of the students that learned the design process and the performance of robots they designed and participated in an international robotics contest were examined. The high school teams that studied the proposed process won the first places in an international contest. The robots developed by the students had better performance than robots built by engineers and faculty teams. Professional experts rated the robots’ designs as excellent. The students that studied the process demonstrated high level of diverse design skills including creativity and design management capabilities. Additionally, they improved their science subject grades and their attitude toward engineering. Both the results obtained by the study and the authors’ experience in teaching robotics demonstrate that the proposed robot development process could be taught successfully in high school and that it leads to superior robotic products. Our experience also indicates that this process could serve industry design by improving the robustness of robots operating in uncertain environments and supporting fast change management practices.     

气体中微量水分析方法概述

概述了各种测定气体中微量水的分析方法：光腔衰荡光谱法、电解法、露点法、卡尔费休库仑法、重量法及碳化钙法的测定原理及其优缺点;并详细列举和归纳了不同种类气体产品测定水分含量所采用的方法,为企业和质监部门监控气体产品质量提供了可参考的技术信息。