Conceptualization,measurement, and application of semantic transparency in visual notations

Numerous visual notations are present in technical and business domains. Notations have to be cognitively effective to ease the planning, documentation, and communication of the domains’ concepts. Semantic transparency (ST) is one of the elementary principles that influence notations’ cognitive effectiveness. However, the principle is criticized for not being well defined and challenges arise in the evaluations and applications of ST. Accordingly, this research’s objectives were to answer how the ST principle is defined, operationalized, and evaluated in present notations as well as applied in the design of new notations in ICT and related areas. To meet these objectives, a systematic literature review was conducted with 94 studies passing the selection process criteria. The results reject one of the three aspects, which define semantic transparency, namely “ST is achieved with the use of icons.” Besides, taxonomies of related concepts and research methods, evaluation metrics, and other findings from this study can help to conduct verifiable ST-related experiments and applications, consequently improving the visual vocabularies of notations and effectiveness of the resulting diagrams.

     

Measuring and improving the quality of development processes based on usability and accessibility

Universal Access in the Information Society - Measurement of both usability and accessibility is an important concern in software development today. However, while a great amount of attention has...     

The Utility of Land-Surface Model Simulations to Provide Drought Information in a Water Management Context Using Global and Local Forcing Datasets

Drought diagnosis and forecasting are fundamental issues regarding hydrological management in Spain, where recurrent water scarcity periods are normal. Land-surface models (LSMs) could provide relevant information for water managers on how drought conditions evolve. Here, we explore the usefulness of LSMs driven by atmospheric analyses with different resolutions and accuracies in simulating drought and its propagation to precipitation, soil moisture and streamflow through the system. We perform simulations for the 1980-2014 period with SASER (5 km resolution) and LEAFHYDRO (2.5 km resolution), which are forced by the Spanish SAFRAN dataset (at 5km and 30km resolutions), and the global eartH2Observe datasets at 0.25 degrees (including the MSWEP precipitation dataset). We produce standardized indices for precipitation (SPI), soil moisture (SSMI) and streamflow (SSI). The results show that the model structure uncertainty remains an important issue in current generation large-scale hydrological simulations based on LSMs. This is true for both the SSMI and SSI. The differences between the simulated SSMI and SSI are large, and the propagation scales for drought regarding both soil moisture and streamflow are overly dependent on the model structure. Forcing datasets have an impact on the uncertainty of the results but, in general, this impact is not as large as the uncertainty due to model formulation. Concerning the global products, the precipitation product that includes satellite observations (MSWEP) represents a large improvement compared with the product that does not.

     

Suitability of the SWAT Model for Simulating Water Discharge and Sediment Load in a Karst Watershed of the Semiarid Mediterranean Basin

Water Resources Management - This paper presents a case study conducted in the Upper Argos River, in southeast Spain, to verify the applicability of the SWAT model for prediction of the water...     

乌东德水电站水工闸门动力安全评价

乌东德水电站泄洪洞工作闸门为弧型闸门,具有孔口尺寸大、水头高、流速大、局部开启运行的特点,研究闸门在流激振动下的动力特性具有重要意义。运用数值模型和物理模型相结合的方法进行了仿真模拟和试验研究,综合评估了闸门的流激振动安全性。结果表明：两种模型得到的7阶以内闸门自振频率较为接近,且振型相同,相互验证了彼此的可靠性;物理模型试验应力结果与数值计算结果较为接近,闸门支臂和横梁等主要构件的动静叠加应力不超过157 MPa,闸门下支臂与支铰连接部位腹板处测点应力较大,但未超过局部承压容许应力值。     

落球法测量液体粘滞系数的实验研究

通过实验并利用 OriginP ro8.0软件对实验数据进行了线性拟合,给出了在实验室条件下斯托克斯公式的修正系数,并将计算结果与公认值进行了比较。结果表明,给出的修正公式的计算结果误差小,数据离散程度较小。在相同条件下对2种不同液体所做实验得到一致的结论。     

Influence of habitat heterogeneity and bed surface complexity on benthic invertebrate diversity in a gravel‐bed river

Maintaining or restoring physical habitat diversity is a central tenet of sustainable river management, yet a link between habitat and ecological diversity in fluvial systems has long remained equivocal. The lack of consistent evidence partly reflects the problems of characterizing habitat in ways that are ecologically meaningful. This paper assesses the influence of habitat heterogeneity and complexity on macroinvertebrate assemblages in a mountain gravel‐bed river. With the use of 0.1‐m resolution data obtained from an acoustic Doppler current profiler, heterogeneity and complexity in hydraulic conditions and bed topography were characterized using 13 metrics applied to 30 areas, each 1 m², with an invertebrate sample collected from each area. Turnover of invertebrate taxa (i.e., β‐diversity) between sampled areas was rather limited, but observed differences in diversity were related significantly to several metrics of habitat heterogeneity. Invertebrate abundance was related to habitat diversity, patch size coefficient of variation, and patch size, whereas the Shannon diversity was related to the number of patches and patch size. None of the habitat complexity metrics accounted for a significant amount of observed variation in invertebrate communities between sampled areas. The paper demonstrates that high‐resolution data can help reveal relationships between habitat and benthic invertebrate diversity.     

某特大简支梁桥墩身开裂的事故排查

桥梁裂缝严重影响结构安全性和耐久性,不符合“绿色建造”和“可持续发展”的相关理念。文章对某特大简支梁桥桥墩开裂现象进行事故排查,为裂缝修复工作提供依据,以促进桥梁施工各个环节的规范化。考虑支座中未拆除的临时连接螺栓对墩、梁的约束作用,首先以Abaqus分析未拆除的临时连接螺栓对支座水平剪切变形的约束作用,然后以Midas计算了3种最不利工况下桥墩墩顶处的支座反力,最后以ANSYS分析3种最不利荷载组合时墩身应力。结果表明,即使按墩顶的4个纵向活动支座临时连接被同时破坏的最不利情况考虑,墩身在3种最不利工况下的最大主拉应力也仅为0.08 MPa,远未达到C30混凝土的拉应力容许值0.73 MPa。因此,架梁完成后未及时拆除支座临时连接的限位螺栓并不是导致该桥墩身开裂的主要原因,事故调查需从其他方面入手。但该疏忽会在桥墩中引起拉应力,应尽量避免,确保桥梁建造的各个环节更为规范。     

Effect of calcium aluminate cement variety on the hydration of portland cement in blended system

Two kinds of CACs with different monocalcium aluminate（CA） contents were used in the PC/CAC（PAC） mixtures. Effects of CA and CACs on the properties of PAC were analyzed by setting times and the compressive strength tests, and also by means of calorimetry, XRD, DTA-TG and ESEM. The experimental results show that the compressive strength of the PAC mortars decreases with increasing content of CAC while it declines sharply with a higher content of CA in CAC. Compared with neat PC paste, the content of calcium hydroxide in hydrates of PAC paste decreases significantly, and the hydration time of PC is prominently prolonged. Additionally, the higher the content of CA in CAC, the more obviously the hydration of PC is delayed, confi rming that the CA phase in CAC plays an important role in the delay of PC hydration.     

企业网站设计内容第一的原则

企业网站设计内容第一的原则,其根本在于企业网站能否吸引和留住客户或潜在客户,它包含三层意思：网站内容的面向对象要准确清晰;针对目标访客的网站内容要紧扣其兴趣中心,从为其带来价值的角度出发,令其感到有收获;促使目标访客对网站内容建立起充分的信任感、解答其疑问。从网站内容方面保证了企业网站对目标访客的吸引力和访问粘度,从而为企业网站实现其既定目标打下了良好的基础。