Some Uncollected Writings

Abstract

For many years prominent educators have insisted that we must broaden our school life beyond the confines of the book and the schoolroom to include the activities of the outside world. While the practice has in no measure kept pace with the theory, there has been a steady movement toward a larger and more rational use of this real world of Nature and Industry. Comparatively few persons realize how much is being done in many city schools to make up to the child the loss suffered by deprivation of life near to nature. The following lines of work carried on in this school are but a few of the ways in which many city schools are endeavoring to put the children into closer touch with the realms outside the schoolroom.     

Centrifugal effects on combustion synthesis of (Ti-B-C) compound system

A centrifugal force plays an important role on the control of combustion synthesis. In the present work, the data of reaction propagation rates obtained by changing the direction of reaction propagation and centrifugal force are evaluated in order to make clear the effect of centrifugal force on reaction propagations and product formation. As a result, the reaction propagation rate in the case of the direction of centrifugal force inverse to reaction propagation is larger than that in the case of the same direction, and product grains become smaller in size. It is confirmed that the centrifugal effect is much larger for the present combustion synthesis process in the case that the reaction propagates inversely to the direction of centrifugal force. Since molten titanium near combustion front tends to coalesce into larger drops in that case, reactants of boron and carbon would diffuse more sufficiently into titanium.     

Sharing the responsibility for driver distraction across road transport systems: A systems approach to the management of distracted driving

Distracted driving is acknowledged universally as a large and growing road safety problem. Compounding the problem is that distracted driving is a complex, multifaceted issue influenced by a multitude of factors, organisations and individuals. As such, management of the problem is not straightforward. Numerous countermeasures have been developed and implemented across the globe. The vast majority of these measures have derived from the traditional reductionist, driver-centric approach to distraction and have failed to fully reflect the complex mix of actors and components that give rise to drivers becoming distracted. An alternative approach that is gaining momentum in road safety is the systems approach, which considers all components of the system and their interactions as an integrated whole. In this paper, we review the current knowledge base on driver distraction and argue that the systems approach is not currently being realised in practice. Adopting a more holistic, systems approach to distracted driving will not only improve existing knowledge and interventions from the traditional approach, but will enhance our understanding and management of distraction by considering the complex relationships and interactions of the multiple actors and the myriad sources, enablers and interventions that make up the distracted driving system. It is only by recognising and understanding how all of the system components work together to enable distraction to occur, that we can start to work on solutions to help mitigate the occurrence and consequences of distracted driving.     

On the overlap, the precision and estimated recall of search engines. A case study of the query “Erdos”

In this paper we investigate the retrieval capabilities of six Internet search engines on a simple query. As a case study the query “Erdos” was chosen. Paul Erdos was a world famous Hungarian mathematician, who passed away in September 1996. Existing work on search engine evaluation considers only the first ten or twenty results returned by the search engine, therefore approximation of the recalls of the engines has not been considered so far. In this work we retrieved all 6681 documents that the search engines pointed at and thoroughly examined them. Thus we could calculate the precision of the whole retrieval process, study the overlap between the results of the engines and give an estimate on the recall of the searches. The precision of the engines is high, recall in very low and the overlap is minimal.     

COVID-19 policy analysis: labour structure dictates lockdown mobility behaviour

Countries and cities around the world have resorted to unprecedented mobility restrictions to combat COVID-19 transmission. Here we exploit a natural experiment whereby Colombian cities implemented varied lockdown policies based on ID number and gender to analyse the impact of these policies on urban mobility. Using mobile phone data, we find that the restrictiveness of cities’ mobility quotas (the share of residents allowed out daily according to policy advice) does not correlate with mobility reduction. Instead, we find that larger, wealthier cities with more formalized and complex industrial structure experienced greater reductions in mobility. Within cities, wealthier residents are more likely to reduce mobility, and commuters are especially more likely to stay at home when their work is located in wealthy or commercially/industrially formalized neighbourhoods. Hence, our results indicate that cities’ employment characteristics and work-from-home capabilities are the primary determinants of mobility reduction. This finding underscores the need for mitigations aimed at lower income/informal workers, and sheds light on critical dependencies between socio-economic classes in Latin American cities.     

浅析技工学校专业英语教学策略

中国的圜际化步伐不断的加快，我们在现实生活中也能感受到，外国的产品越来越多，外国人也越来越多的来到中国，而我们身边的一些人也都纷纷的出国旅行、一作或是留学。这在几十年前还是新鲜事，但是在今天却成了司空见惯的事情，通过这些变化，可以看出中国与世界接轨的程度，英语的学习在我们的生活中也是十分重要的。英语教学对于任何一个学校都是必不可少的，技工学校也不例外，由于资本主义圜家、特别是英语国家的科学技术在世界上处于领先地位，技工学校所教授的课程又是与前沿科技的相关性十分密切的。本文通过对技工学校英语教学的现状分析，找出其存在的问题，进而指出解决问题的相关对策。     

Simulation of stochastic demand data streams for network revenue management problems

For evaluating heuristic and optimal network revenue management procedures test-instances are needed. As a consequence when trying to create instances for network revenue management problems it turns out that among other things a stream of stochastic demand data is required. But, developing and implementing a generator for demand data that fits to a given network, a given set of products, and a given set of capacity constraints is far from being easy. Since to the best of our knowledge no such demand data generator is available to the public, we specify an algorithm to generate this data and we also make this algorithm available upon request. This, we hope, facilitates future research work.     

Size effects in the transition region and the beginning of the upper shelf for ferritic steels

The determination of a characteristic fracture toughness value for ferritic steels in the ductile‐to‐brittle transition regime becomes difficult due to the scatter observed in the results. As the temperature increases, ductile mechanisms become more active and sometimes no brittle fracture occurs. Close to the upper shelf, and contrary to what happens when only cleavage occurs, the scatter diminishes as the temperature increases, and it is also size‐dependent: more scatter is found for larger sizes than for smaller specimens. An interpretation of the phenomena that takes place from the transition region up to the beginning of the upper shelf is presented in this work. This interpretation explains the difference in scatter and toughness among different sample sizes, and it also validates that the beginning of the upper shelf is dependent on the size of the sample or structure. Results from the Euro Dataset Round Robin were used to validate this interpretation.     

Automated Negotiation in E Commerce: Protocol Relevance and Improvement Techniques

We all negotiate, formally or informally, in jobs, in day today lives and outcomes of negotiations affect those processes of life. Although negotiation is an intrinsic nature of human psyche, it is very complex phenomenon to implement using computing and internet for the various purposes in E Commerce. Automation of negotiation process poses unique challenges for computer scientists and researchers, so here we study how negotiation can be modeled and analyzed mathematically, what can be different techniques and strategies or set of rules/protocols to be implemented and how they can be relevantly implemented. We are in a quest to find out how this complex process, which involves human psyche can be automated using computers and modern day technologies. Now, the quest is not only automation, looking at the research in the related field in last ten years; but it is all about finding solutions to make e-negotiation more efficient and more accurate, as well as useful in any kind of electronic trading situations. Here is an attempt to consolidate our work of last few years on automation of negotiation process; we call it as negotiation protocol on research, study as well as implementation level of negotiation automation. Overall, we are trying to give few solutions to make the automation more efficient.     

A survey of metaheuristic-based techniques for University Timetabling problems

As well as nearly always belonging to the class of NP-complete problems, university timetabling problems can be further complicated by the often idiosyncratic requirements imposed by the particular institution being considered. It is perhaps due to this characteristic that in the past decade-or-so, metaheuristics have become increasingly popular in the field of automated timetabling. In this paper we carry out an overview of such applications, paying particular attention to the various methods that have been proposed for dealing and differentiating between constraints of varying importance. Our review allows us to classify these algorithms into three general classes, and we make some instructive comments on each of these. The author would like to give thanks to Ben Paechter at Napier University, Edinburgh, and Barry McCollum of Queens University, Belfast for providing the initial motivation for the production of this work. The author is also grateful to Peter Morgan, Bruce Curry, and Jonathan Thompson at Cardiff University and also an anonymous referee for their helpful comments and insights.     

打动人心的广告

广告是营销者对目标顾客和公众进行说服性传播的主要工具之一。它通过资讯的传递来达到改变人们对有关事物的印象、说服人们接爱某种观念的目的。但是面对现代社会瓷讯过多所造成的负担，一股对资讯的反挫力在形成：人们对广告越来越多的持有漠然甚至是怀疑的态度，他们不愿受广告及其的支配，而更愿意相信自己相要的。在这种情况下，广告要打动观众的心，才有可能影响和说服观念。具体来讲，广告宣传应有明确的目的，有的放矢；可以挖掘贴近生活的素材巧妙的唤起观众的共鸣，或者也可以借助幽默的表达来增强感染力。     

Determination of attenuation-velocity products in a layered homogeneous medium

Attenuation imaging has the promise to become a measurement technique for ultrasound imaging systems more sophisticated than those we currently possess; however, the difficulties in using the presently available methods tend to limit this potential for the non-specialist. In our recent work, we have investigated the attenuation imaging problem, and have had some success with an alternative technique, namely, attenuation-velocity product imaging. In certain cases this can be an acceptable substitute for purely attenuation imaging, particularly for the soft tissues encountered in some diagnostic medical situations where the acoustic velocities of the various layers are all of approximately the same value. This article discusses our technique in detail, beginning with fundamental considerations. We make no unreasonable assumptions about the object under study, and yet are able to show the uniqueness of the solution and also deal effectively with the problem of multiple reflections. The data encountered in this experimental configuration have several intriguing properties, which allow us to draw some conclusions about acoustic imaging in general.     

Societal responses to the Anthropocene

This article discusses the societal responses to the Anthropocene. First we need to confront the effects of our own population proliferation in all its aspects; next to look again at economics and replace consumerism as a goal; then to work out new ways of generating energy; to manage and adapt to what is in effect climate destabilization; to give higher priority to conservation of the natural world; and last to create the necessary institutional means of coping with global problems in a world in which society is more integrated than ever before.     

A new Bayesian multivariate exponentially weighted moving average control chart for phase II monitoring of multivariate multiple linear profiles

Recently, statistical profile monitoring methods have become efficient tools for monitoring the quality of a product (or a production process) using control charts. The key idea is to describe the relationship between a response variable and a set of explanatory variables in the form of a statistical regression model, which called profile. Traditionally, those control charts are constructed with standard “frequentistic” regression models. Recently, it has been proposed to apply Bayesian regression models instead, and it has been empirically demonstrated that Bayesian regression models have the potential to perform significantly better. In this paper, we introduce a novel Bayesian multivariate exponentially weighted moving average control chart for monitoring multivariate multiple linear profiles in phase II. The key idea is to use the data from historical data sets to generate informative prior distributions for the regression models in phase II. The results of our empirical simulation studies show that the Bayesian multivariate multiple linear regression model is superior to its classical “frequentistic” counterpart in terms of the average run length. Our empirical findings are in agreement with findings reported in recently published articles. To shed more light onto the merit of the proposed Bayesian method, we carry out a sensitivity analysis, in which we investigate how the amount of phase I data influences the results. We also demonstrate the applicability and superiority of the proposed Bayesian method by a real‐world application.     

The geometry and nonlinear dynamics of pathogenesis

This paper is an extension of previous work on the dynamics of the competition of normal cells and cancer cells for food supply. In this paper, we deal with pathogenesis (development of illness) in general. In addition to cancer, other pathogens (disease-causing agents), such as those which attack normal cells directly and those which have a very low metabolic rate, are considered. The paper differs from our previous work in another significant way. The entire presentation has been based on geometric perspective. It has been shown that this perspective not only greatly simplifies the analysis but also helps as a cogitation and communication tool. Two new theorems about the stability of the rest points have been stated and extensively used. One of the fundamental questions of pathogenesis is this: why is it that sometimes a little bit of the disease gets completely cured, on its own, and why is it that at times it grows a lot? Mathematically, it has been shown that the results depend crucially on two “upheavals” in the system caused by changes in the parameters of the system. These upheavals cause “bifurcations”. There are bad bifurcations, which are triggered by lowering the immune system below a dangerous level, and good bifurcations, which results when the food supply is significantly reduced. Using this analysis, we now have a possibility for developing a firm quantitative foundation for the problem. We have also shown that the famous ecological principle of “competitive exclusion” is not always valid in these cases. In fact, we often get a “critical mass” of pathogen, which must be present for the disease to become viable.     

Technical Standards of Occupational Disease Prevention in Research

Code of Occupational Disease Prevention of P.R. China was promulgated in 2002. As per law-en forcement requirement, we need a prompt establishment of occupational disease prevention standard system to become compatible with advanced world standards and make up our current technical standards on occupational disease prevention (TSODP). With an eye to improving TSODP system and reinforcing legislative construction, this project focuses on TSODP of workplace and occupational protection, and will be of momentous importance to guide employing units in preventing occupational disease. In addition, this project attaches importance to the integration of the said standards into those of advanced international ones, which will be conductive to update China's ODP and foster a good and healthy international image for China. This article gives you a general profile of this project through anticipated goals, progress and achievements of particular stages, so that you can have some knowledge of this project.     

Invisible computing: automatically using the many bits of data we create

As we go about our work and our daily lives, we leave a trail of bits behind. Every electronic device we interact with can keep a record of our actions. Even the devices themselves can keep track of their location and radio interactions, even without user involvement. The challenge of invisible computing is to make this wealth of data useful. This paper presents two examples of what has come to be known as 'invisible computing', namely, devices recording, distilling and rendering these many bits of data without unduly taxing human users. The first example is focused on a work environment. Labscape automates the record keeping required of experimenters in a cell biology laboratory. The second example looks at more ad hoc interactions. RFID Ecosystem is a collection of radio-frequency identification (RFID) readers and databases that collect the sightings of passive RFID tags, attached to people and objects, as they move throughout a large building. It provides services such as people and object finding as well as diary keeping.     

Conceptual disruption and 21st century technologies: A framework

Modern technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, geo-engineering, social media, or next-generation genomics have been and will continue to be socially (culturally, economically, legally, etc.) disruptive. Several philosophers of technology have noted that technology is not only socially but also conceptually disruptive. Technologies do not only change the way we live together. They also challenge the way we conceptualize or classify ourselves and the world around us. However, it is not clear what it means for technology to disrupt our concepts, as the very idea of conceptual disruption and its relation to conceptual and social change remain opaque. In what way can technologies disrupt our concepts and how we can overcome such disruptions? This paper proposes a framework for studying technology-induced conceptual disruptions that draws both on mediation theory and recent work on conceptual engineering.     

The impact of small world on patent productivity in China

Based on the patent co-authorship data from State Intellectual Property Office of China, this paper examines the evolution of small world network and its impact on patent productivity in China. Compared with the western countries, the small-world phenomenon of the innovation network in China is becoming more obvious. Empirical result shows that the small world network may only have significant impact on patent productivity in those patent productive provinces, e.g., Beijing and Guangdong that filed larger number of patents. Although the collaborations in the network are more endurable in China than ones in western countries, it may be less efficient in transmitting knowledge because of large ratio of administration oriented state owned enterprises (SOEs). With larger ratio of SOEs, the small world network has longer path length and knowledge thus flows less efficiently in Beijing than in Guangdong. The policy implication of the findings lies in that the Chinese government should let the market rather than the administration determine the collaboration of technological innovation, in order to encourage innovation and establish an effective small world network for speeding up flow of knowledge among different type of firms during the innovative process.