Trust fraud: A crucial challenge for China’s e-commerce market

Currently, China’s e-commerce market is growing at an unprecedented pace, however, it is faced with many challenges, among which the trust fraud problem is the biggest issue. In this article, we use Taobao as an example and conduct a thorough investigation of the trust fraud phenomenon in China’s e-commerce market. We present the development history of trust fraud, summarize its unique characteristics, and explore the reasons why so many sellers commit fraud. We further propose a dynamic time decay trust model that aims to deter trust fraud by raising its cost and promote the growth of small and medium-sized sellers. The model utilizes detailed seller ratings as the data source, and incorporates a transaction amount weight, a time decay coefficient, and three trust factors in the calculation of trust. We test the model on real transaction data from Taobao, and the experimental results verify its effectiveness. Our proposed trust model yields a practical approach to online trust management not only in the Taobao market but also for other e-commerce platforms.     

Concurrence for infinite-dimensional quantum systems

Concurrence is an important entanglement measure for states in finite-dimensional quantum systems that was explored intensively in the last decade. In this paper, we extend the concept of concurrence to infinite-dimensional bipartite systems and show that it is continuous and does not increase under local operation and classical communication.     

Robust tracking design based on adaptive fuzzy control of uncertain nonlinear MIMO systems with time delayed states

It is proposed here to use a robust tracking design based on adaptive fuzzy control technique to control a class of multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) nonlinear systems with time delayed uncertainty in which each uncertainty is assumed to be bounded by an unknown gain. This technique will overcome modeling inaccuracies, such as drag and friction losses, effect of time delayed uncertainty, as well as parameter uncertainties. The proposed control law is based on indirect adaptive fuzzy control. A fuzzy model is used to approximate the dynamics of the nonlinear MIMO system; then, two on-line estimation schemes are developed to overcome the nonlinearities and identify the gains of the delayed state uncertainties, simultaneously. The advantage of employing an adaptive fuzzy system is the use of linear analytical results instead of estimating nonlinear system functions with an online update law. The adaptive fuzzy scheme uses a Variable Structure (VS) scheme to resolve the system uncertainties, time delayed uncertainty and the external disturbances such that H_∞ tracking performance is achieved. The control laws are derived based on a Lyapunov criterion and the Riccati-inequality such that all states of the system are uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB). Therefore, the effect can be reduced to any prescribed level to achieve H _∞ tracking performance. A two-connected inverted pendulums system on carts and a two-degree-of-freedom mass-spring-damper system are used to validate the performance of the proposed fuzzy technique for the control of MIMO nonlinear systems.     

Application mobility in pervasive computing: A survey

Pervasive computing applications often need to maintain uninterrupted computing experiences when users move across devices. This advanced feature, recognized as application mobility, brings many challenges to the pervasive computing community. For a better understanding of the challenges and existing approaches to application mobility, this paper surveys related work with a classification and comparison framework established along four dimensions of design concerns in application migration: temporal, spatial, entity and other concerns. Through this survey this paper attempts to provide a systematic reference for developers to leverage off among different migration strategies for seamless application mobility. Moreover, it sheds some light on future work directions.     

A novel method to construct 3D electrodes at the sidewall of microfluidic channel

We report a simple, low-cost and novel method for constructing three-dimensional (3D) microelectrodes in microfluidic system by utilizing low melting point metal alloy. Three-dimensional electrodes have unique properties in application of cell lysis, electro-osmosis, electroporation and dielectrophoresis. The fabrication process involves conventional photolithography and sputtering techniques to fabricate planar electrodes, positioning bismuth (Bi) alloy microspheres at the sidewall of PDMS channel, plasma bonding and low temperature annealing to improve electrical connection between metal microspheres and planar electrodes. Compared to other fabrication methods for 3D electrodes, the presented one does not require rigorous experimental conditions, cumbersome processes and expensive equipments. Numerical analysis on electric field distribution with different electrode configurations was presented to verify the unique field distribution of arc-shaped electrodes. The application of 3D electrode configuration with high-conductive alloy microspheres was confirmed by particle manipulation based on dielectrophoresis. The proposed technique offers alternatives to construct 3D electrodes from 2D electrodes. More importantly, the simplicity of the fabrication process provides easy ways to fabricate electrodes fast with arc-shaped geometry at the sidewall of microchannel.     

Oscillating bubbles in teardrop cavities for microflow control

Microstreaming generated from oscillating microbubbles has great potential in microfluidic applications for localized flow control. In this study, we explore the use of teardrop-shaped cavities for trapping microbubbles. Upon acoustic actuation, these microbubbles confined in teardrop cavities can be utilized to generate a directional microstreaming flow. We further show that by altering the acoustic excitation frequency, a flow-switch for altering flow direction in microfluidic environments can be achieved using two oppositely arranged teardrop cavities with different sizes. In the end, we show that an array of such bubble-filled teardrop cavities can act as a fixated microfluidic transport system allowing for on-chip particle manipulation in complex flow patterns. This inexpensive method to create flows to switch and transport elements based on teardrop cavities can be widely employed for microfluidic applications such as drug delivery systems.     

A method for shape and topology optimization of truss-like structure

We present a method for the shape and topology optimization of truss-like structure. First, an initial design of a truss-like structure is constructed by a mesh generator of the finite element method because a truss-like structure can be described by a finite element mesh. Then, the shape and topology of the initial structure is optimized. In order to ensure a truss-like structure can be easily manufactured via intended techniques, we assume the beams have the same size of cross-section, and a method based on the concept of the SIMP method is used for the topology optimization. In addition, in order to prevent intersection of beams and zero-length beams, a geometric constraint based on the signed area of triangle is introduced to the shape optimization. The optimization method is verified by several 2D examples. Influence on compliance of the representative length of beams is investigated.     

矿井提升机稳车集中控制系统

针对矿井提升机稳车常采用的继电控制方式存在的保护简单、操作人员劳动强度大等问题,介绍了一种以PLC为控制核心、以电动机综合保护器为主要保护器件、以触摸屏为人机界面的新型稳车集中控制系统。该系统实现了某煤矿新主井4台16t稳车及2台10t稳车的单台运行、多台同步运行以及多台稳车运行时的单台停止、多台同步停止功能,稳车电动机的多种保护功能以及稳车参数的实时显示功能,提高了稳车安全运行的可靠性,减轻了操作人员的劳动强度。     

OpenStack Heat与企业应用部署

OpenStack Heat在开源应用的部署上有很大优势,但在企业应用部署方面有不少问题。本文罗列这些问题．并就其中的一部分给出解决方案,对尚无成熟解决方案的问题努力使其明朗化。