A multi-agent decision support system for stock trading

A distributed problem solving system can be characterized as a group of individual cooperating agents running to solve common problems. As dynamic application domains continue to grow in scale and complexity, it becomes more difficult to control the purposeful behavior of agents, especially when unexpected events may occur. This article presents an information and knowledge exchange framework to support distributed problem solving. From the application viewpoint the article concentrates on the stock trading domain; however, many presented solutions can be extended to other dynamic domains. It addresses two important issues: how individual agents should be interconnected so that their resources are efficiently used and their goals accomplished effectively; and how information and knowledge transfer should take place among the agents to allow them to respond successfully to user requests and unexpected external situations. The article introduces an architecture, the MASST system architecture, which supports dynamic information and knowledge exchange among the cooperating agents. The architecture uses a dynamic blackboard as an interagent communication paradigm to facilitate factual data, business rule, and command exchange between cooperating MASST agents. The critical components of the MASST architecture have been implemented and tested in the stock trading domain, and have proven to be a viable solution for distributed problem solving based on cooperating agents     

Environmental-stress-screening using degradation measurements

ESS (environmental stress screening) has been extensively used to reduce infant mortality by precipitating defects. The existing ESS plans precipitate defects by stressing all products for specified durations. The plans usually require long screen durations to allow nearly all defective items to fail, and thus generate excessive aging effects on good items. For some products, failures are defined in terms of performance characteristics exceeding their critical values. This paper describes the principles of using degradation measurements of performance characteristics to screen the products. In an ESS, the performance characteristics of defective items degrade considerably faster than those of good ones, yielding a bimodal distribution of the characteristics. As screen duration increases, the 2 modes of the distribution shift apart. It is possible to find a tightened critical value to weed out the defective items before they fail. This paper, based on these principles, further designs the optimal 2-level screen plans which minimize a segment of life-cycle cost and which simultaneously meet the reliability requirement. The minimum cost is achieved by choosing optimal part-level and unit-level screen durations and tightened critical values of parts. A numerical example is followed by discussion. Because the ESS regime of this paper allows defective parts to be screened out before they fail, the developed optimal ESS plans can reduce life-cycle cost, shorten part-level screen duration, and alleviate aging effects on good products     

Guest Editorial

The UK-China Research Network on Intelligent Automation, Computing and Manufacturing has been established since September 2004 by grants from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) of the UK and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The initiative of the network is motivated by the last visit of the UK Science Minister Lord Sainsbury to China to open the first UK-China Hi-Tech Forum and by the current EPSRC initiative to set up specific network programmes in collaboration with partners in China.     

黄磷渣制备多孔陶瓷的研究

研究了用黄磷渣代替部分粘土作陶瓷原料，既可以解决磷渣对环境的污染和堆放占用耕地问题，使该固体废弃物资源化，又能缓解陶瓷原料的短缺。     

Morphology and properties of poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(2′‐ethyl‐hexyloxy)‐para‐phenylene vinylene]/silica nanoparticle hybrid films

Poly[2‐methoxy‐5‐(2′‐ethyl‐hexyloxy)‐para‐phenylene vinylene] (MEH‐PPV)/silica nanoparticle hybrid films were prepared and characterised. Three kinds of materials were compared: parent MEH‐PPV, MEH‐PPV/silica (hybrid A films), and MEH‐PPV/coupling agent MSMA/silica (hybrid B films), in which MSMA is 3‐(trimethoxysilyl) propyl methacrylate. It was found that the hybrid B films could significantly prevent macrophase separation, as evidenced by scanning electron and fluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, the thermal characteristics of the hybrid films were largely improved in comparison with the parent MEH‐PPV. The UV‐visible absorption spectra suggested that the incorporation of MSMA‐modified silica into MEH‐PPV could confine the polymer chain between nanoparticles and thus increase the conjugation length. The photoluminescence (PL) studies also indicated enhancement of the PL intensity and quantum efficiency by incorporating just 2 wt% of MSMA‐modified silica into MEH‐PPV. However, hybrid A films did not show such enhancement of optoelectronic properties as the hybrid B films. The present study suggests the importance of the interface between the luminescent organic polymers and the inorganic silica on morphology and optoelectronic properties. Copyright © 2004 Society of Chemical Industry     

软β核素内部样品塑料闪烁探测器

本文评价了塑料闪烁片用作软β核素探测器时的计数效率、β谱、本底谱和康普顿电子谱的特征。文中强调:采用胶合光导剂构成的系统是一种新型探测器(软β核素内部样品塑料闪烁探测器)。本文提出内部样品固体探测器、胶合光导剂和胶合闪烁光导剂的新概念。     

甘三酯立体专一分析的研究：（Ⅱ）甘三酯立体专一分析方法初探

在第一部分综合讨论的基础上对甘三酯立体专一分析方法作了初步探讨。以液体油(菜油)及固体脂(猪脂)为基质,系统地研究了这一分析方法,取得了经验并补充了一些具体验证方法。分析液体油的结果与文献数据相一致,分析猪脂的结果欠佳,还存在一些问题需待进一步研究。