Toward a narra-topography: A pilot study applied to Marguerite Duras' novelModerato Cantabile

Although lexical frequencies are familiar measures of stylistic and thematic analysis, only recently have some stylostatisticians been tempted to investigate the relationship between the frequency and topography of repeated lexical items. In the present paper the authors have turned to the study of the four focal types of discursive narratology, using Marguerite Duras'Moderato Cantabile. Their intent is to uncover aspects of narratological performance which further elucidate the communicative strategies in the story. Part 1 summarizes the problematic between frequency and topography. It describes how a topographical index can be computed for any repeated item and how a Global Topography Index (GTI) can summarize the major topographical characteristics of any text sequence. Part 2 presents a four-cell typology of narrational mode: a segmentation of the verbal chain into narrating and narrated speech acts, with each text sequence tagged according to its discursive function: overt sender intervention for story coherence or comment on the focal level of a narrating present; representation of discrete or unlocalized events on the focal level of a mimeticized past. In Part 3 the focal encodings are displayed in numerical and graphic form, first according to the eight surface chapter divisions and then according to twenty-six subsets of approximately equal length. The fluctuations of the topography indices are reviewed, with particular attention being paid to the manifestation of cluster effects. Although sender interventions predominate, the relativized behavior of each focal type contributes to a climactic unraveling of the intrigue in the final chapters. In conclusion, the authors stress the dichotomy between the calm surface of the chapters and the agitated tensions of the twenty-six subsets.     

Non-contact handling in microassembly: Acoustical levitation

Microassembly is currently of the utmost importance in industry. Nevertheless, the classical assembly processes are no longer usable for very small components, typically ranging from 10  m to 10 mm, since usually neglected surface forces disturb the handling task by inducing adhesion between the component and the gripper. A promising alternative to tackle surface forces consists in levitating the handled component. The various advantages of this contactless handling method are reviewed here and justify the choice of this approach. Consequently, the numerous physical principles suitable for contactless handling are briefly described together with their limitations. The evaluation shows that acoustic levitation is best fitted in the case of microassembly. A classification of literature applications is presented hereafter with special focus on acoustic levitation. Finally, the most common models of acoustical levitation are inspected in a general way. The described models come within the scope of non-linear acoustics.     

Abrasion phenomena in twill tencel fabric

The abrasion characteristics of Tencel fabrics were evaluated by Martindale abrasion and laundering, and the breakdown mechanism of fibers was surveyed by scanning electron microscopy. The fabric was subjected to pad‐dry‐cure treatment with two different types of modified dimethyloldihydroxyethylene urea resins (Reaktant DH and Reaktant FC). Although the degree of dry abrasion varied with different resins, the damage exhibited by individual fibers differed little from untreated to resin‐treated; the major mechanism of abrasion was through friction, and the mechanism of fiber failure was multiple splitting and transverse cracking. In untreated Tencel, the characteristic feature of wet abrasion was massive fibrillation, and in crosslinked fabrics, the wet abrasion mechanism was through fiber slippage and slicing action, although in the Reaktant FC‐treated fabric, the wet abrasion mechanism was more through slicing than through fiber splitting. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 1391–1398, 2006     

Automating manual reward systems

The introduction of Personal Computers has enabled Industrial Engineers to automate many aspects of their responsibilities, thus becoming significantly more productive. One aspect which clearly benefits from automation is the creation, implementation, and periodic maintenance of Pay-for-Performance Reward Systems. However, selecting the correct software package is not easy. Industrial Engineers currently have a variety of fully automated software packages to choose from which can range from $2,000 – $100,000. The initial cost alone may make it difficult to Justify for a small plant. Furthermore, if you have a variety of reward systems (Gainsharing - Small Group - One for One) finding a single program to handle all of them may be impossible.

This was a problem Norton Company faced five years ago. We are a fortune 500 company with manufacturing plants located throughout the world, using a variety of reward systems. To remain cost competitive in all aspects of our business, we had to find a way to reduce the on-going maintenance costs of our incentive systems.

Investigating alternatives uncovered a low cost, flexible solution to our problem. The use of off-the-shelf spreadsheet and data base software enabled us to fully automate all aspects of our reward systems.     

用功放驱动热电致冷器来调节温度

系统设计师设计光纤通信系统时经常会遇到一个问题，那就是如何确保激光系统可在某一温度范围内保持其特性。若温度改变，激光系统的中心频率也会随着改变。为了确保频率保持稳定，新一代的固态激光模块都内置一个热电致冷器(Thermoelectric Cooler, TEC)，以便将热能泵入模块或将热能释出，以调节温度。热电致冷器按照佩尔蒂埃效应(Peltier effect) 的原理运作。每当直流电流经热电致冷器时，热能便会由热电致冷器的一边传送至另一边，令热电致冷器的一边转“热”，另一边则转“冷”。若直流电被逆转，原先热的一边会转冷，冷的一边则会…     

Three-parameter vs. two-parameter Weibull distribution for pultruded composite material properties

The three-parameter and two-parameter Weibull distributions are compared using 26 mechanical property data sets of fiber-reinforced polymeric (FRP) composite materials manufactured by the pultrusion process. Both strength and stiffness properties were examined. The probability distributions were compared on the basis of goodness of fit, nominal design values, and allowable load to achieve uniform reliability. It is recommended that the two-parameter Weibull distribution be used to characterize FRP composite material properties. The primary basis for this recommendation is small differences in nominal design values and small differences in allowable loads between the two-parameter and three-parameter Weibull distributions. Other supporting reasons for the recommendation are similar observed significance levels in distribution fitting, computational efficiency, and the fact that the location parameter of the three-parameter Weibull distribution is near the first order statistic.     

Correction to Construction of Panoramic Image Mosaics with Global and Local Alignment

International Journal of Computer Vision -