通过在线客户体验来推动销售

21世纪的消费者在消费体验方面更有自己的主张,直复营销也有了发展。尤其是那些已推出在线业务的企业,已有能力与个人进行互动。     

Integrating scientific modeling and supporting dynamic hazard management with a GeoAgent-based representation of human–environment interactions: A drought example in Central Pennsylvania, USA

Recent natural disasters indicate that modern technologies for environmental monitoring, modeling, and forecasting are not well integrated with cross-level social responses in many hazard-management systems. This research addresses this problem through a Java-based multi-agent prototype system, GeoAgent-based Knowledge System (GeoAgentKS). This system allows: (1) computer representation of institutional regulations and behavioral rules used by multiple social institutions and individuals in cross-level human–environment interactions, (2) integration of this representation with scientific modeling of dynamic hazard development, and (3) application of automated reasoning that suggests to users the appropriate actions for supporting cooperative social responses. This paper demonstrates the software architecture of GeoAgentKS and presents such an integrated approach by modeling the drought management processes in Central Pennsylvania, USA. The results show that it is possible to use GeoAgentKS to represent multilevel human–environment interactions and to use those interactions as input to decision making in hazard management.     

A taxonomy for and analysis of multi-person-display ecosystems

Interactive displays are increasingly being distributed in a broad spectrum of everyday life environments: they have very diverse form factors and portability characteristics, support a variety of interaction techniques, and can be used by a variable number of people. The coupling of multiple displays creates an interactive “ecosystem of displays”. Such an ecosystem is suitable for particular social contexts, which in turn generates novel settings for communication and performance and challenges in ownership. This paper aims at providing a design space that can inform the designers of such ecosystems. To this end, we provide a taxonomy that builds on the size of the ecosystem and on the degree of individual engagement as dimensions. We recognize areas where physical constraints imply certain kinds of social engagement, versus other areas where further work on interaction techniques for coupling displays can open new design spaces.     

Digitally-controlled array of solid-state microcoolers for use in surgery

This paper presents an approach for generating a well-defined cooling pattern over an area of tissue. An array of solid-state microcoolers is used, which could be included in a probe that provides local cooling. This medical instrument can be used for removal of scar tissue in the eye or for the rapid stopping of bleeding due to micro-cuts, which makes it a useful tool to medical doctors and could make surgery more secure to the patient. The array of microcoolers is composed of 64 independent thermo-electric elements, each controlled using an integrated circuit designed in CMOS. The independent control allows the flexible programming of the surface temperature profile. This type of control is very suitable in case abrupt temperature steps should be avoided. Cooling by lateral heat flow was selected in order to minimize the influence of heat by dissipation from the electronic circuits. Moreover, a thermo-electric component with lateral heat allows fabrication of the cooling elements using planar thin-film technology, lithography and wet etching on top of the silicon wafer. This approach is potentially CMOS compatible, which would allow for the fabrication of the thermo-electric elements on top of a pre-fabricated CMOS wafer as a post-process step. Each pixel is composed of thin-films of n-type bismuth telluride, Bi₂Te₃ and p-type antimony telluride, Sb₂Te₃, which are electrically interconnected as thermocouple. These materials have excellent thermoelectric characteristics, such as thermoelectric figures-of-merit, ZT, at room temperatures of 0.84 and 0.5, respectively, which is equivalent to power-factors, PF, of 3.62 × 10⁻³ W K⁻¹ m⁻² and 2.81 × 10⁻³ W K⁻¹ m⁻², respectively. The theoretical study presented here demonstrates a cooling capability of 15°C at room temperature (300 K ≈ 27°C). This cooling performance is sufficient to maintain a local tissue temperature at 25°C, which makes it suitable for the intended application. A first prototype was successfully fabricated to demonstrate the concept.     

Satellite-based estimates of groundwater storage variations in large drainage basins with extensive floodplains

This study presents monthly estimates of groundwater anomalies in a large river basin dominated by extensive floodplains, the Negro River Basin, based on the synergistic analysis using multisatellite observations and hydrological models. For the period 2003-2004, changes in water stored in the aquifer is isolated from the total water storage measured by GRACE by removing contributions of both the surface reservoir, derived from satellite imagery and radar altimetry, and the root zone reservoir simulated by WGHM and LaD hydrological models. The groundwater anomalies show a realistic spatial pattern compared with the hydrogeological map of the basin, and similar temporal variations to local in situ groundwater observations and altimetry-derived level height measurements. Results highlight the potential of combining multiple satellite techniques with hydrological modeling to estimate the evolution of groundwater storage.     

Efficient conservative visibility culling using theprioritized-layered projection algorithm

We propose a novel conservative visibility culling technique based on the Prioritized-Layered Projection (PLP) algorithm. PLP is a time-critical rendering technique that computes, for a given viewpoint, a partially correct image by rendering only a subset of the geometric primitives, those that PLP determines to be most likely visible. Our new algorithm builds on PLP and provides an efficient way of finding the remaining visible primitives. We do this by adding a second phase to PLP which uses image-space techniques for determining the visibility status of the remaining geometry. Another contribution of our work is to show how to efficiently implement such image-space visibility queries using currently available OpenGL hardware and extensions. We report on the implementation of our techniques on several graphics architectures, analyze their complexity, and discuss a possible hardware extension that has the potential to further increase performance     

Parallel processing applied to the planning of hydrothermal systems

The objective of the long-term operating planning problem is to determine the optimum strategy for the generation of electricity, aiming toward the minimization of total operating cost over the planning period. In a competitive electricity market, with the participation of a significant number of hydroplants, such as in Brazil, precision modelling for operating planning is required so that a better use of hydraulic resources can be obtained. We present a long-term operating planning model based on an individual power plant representation. In order to support the high computational burden, a suitable parallel processing algorithm is proposed.     

Improving the availability and cost-effectiveness of guidelines for guideline-users: towards a structured approach

The achievement of design and development solutions can be enhanced through consulting appropriate guidelines Although a wide range exist, frequently their full benefits are not realized by guideline-users because of the costs associated with their use. Guideline-users are people who use guidelines to support purposeful activity. Major cost drivers for guideline-users are the processes of 'selecting' appropriate guidelines and their subsequent 'translation' to an applied setting both of which can be prohibitively expensive. A strategy for producing guidelines is proposed, to minimize these costs, which is illustrated by the use of a case study concerned with the development of guidelines to assist in the production of management and administrative tools which will support project managers concerned with Human Factors Acceptance Testing. A process to support the assessment of guidelines is also proposed.     

The Challenges of Cross-Modal Translation: English-to-Sign-Language Translation in the Zardoz System

The sign languages used by deaf communities around the world represent a linguistic challenge that natural-language researchers in AI have only recently begun to take up. This challenge is particularly relevant to research in Machine Translation (MT), as natural sign languages have evolved in deaf communities into efficient modes of gestural communication, which differ from English not only in modality but in grammatical structure, exploiting a higher dimensionality of spatial expression. In this paper we describe Zardoz, an on-going AI research system that tackles the cross-modal MT problem, translating English text into fluid sign language. The paper presents an architectural overview of Zardoz, describing its central blackboard organization, the nature of its interlingual representation, and the major components which interact through this blackboard both to analyze the verbal input and generate the corresponding gestural output in one of a number of sign variants.