Comparative study on economic contribution rate of education of China and foreign countries based on soft computing method

Economic contribution rate of education (ECRE) is the key factor of education economics. This article selected China, South Korea, United States and other countries for a total of 15 samples, and put the data of the same period under the framework of soft computing, to simulate the production chain of “education–potential human capital–actual human capital–economic growth”. The basic idea is: Firstly, 15 countries are softly categorized according to the level of science and technology (S&T) progress. Secondly, potential human capital and actual human capital establish the internal correlation (fuzzy mapping) in the same classification, and we conceptualize actual human capital as one production factor, joined with the other two production factors, fixed asset and land, to set up the fuzzy mapping to economic growth., and then calculate economic contribution rate of education of China and foreign by two fuzzy mapping of them. Thirdly, this paper analyzes the present state and differences in the development of education between China and foreign according to different ECRE, and offers proposals for promoting the education in China.     

改善火炕炕面温度分布技术模拟

为了使火炕的表面温度分布均匀,提高室内环境的热舒适性,提出了倾斜布置炕板来改善炕面温度分布的不均匀性．通过对炕板倾斜程度不同的落地炕和吊炕进行数值模拟,结果表明:当落地炕的炕头粘土层厚度为80 mm、炕梢粘土厚度为20 mm时具有相对最佳的取暖效果;当吊炕的炕头粘土层厚度为80 mm、炕梢粘土厚度为20 mm时具有相对最佳的取暖效果．     

钢管混凝土隔板贯通式节点的性能

隔板贯通式节点是一种新型钢管混凝土柱-钢梁连接形式。以中海广场为工程背景,进行了钢管混凝土柱一钢梁隔板贯通式节点的拟静力试验,并结合数值模拟结果对该类节点的性能进行了研究。试验结果表明,钢管混凝土柱一钢梁隔板贯通式节点具有较好的刚度、承载能力和延性,能够满足“强柱弱梁,强节点弱构件”的抗震设计原则。数值模拟与试验结果相吻合,可以采用本文所建立的数值模型模拟钢管混凝土柱～钢梁隔板贯通式节点的性能。采用数值的方法,重点研究了隔板尺寸对该结点性能的影响,并提出设计建议。     

滨海吹填土固结蠕变特性试验研究

围海造陆形成的吹填土地基与天然形成地基的工程特性存在诸多差异,为了保证吹填土地基的长期稳定性和安全性,有必要揭示吹填土与天然土工程特性的差异。利用单向固结仪,开展了不同加荷方式下滨海典型软土和围海造陆吹填土的蠕变特性试验对比研究,得到了不同试验条件下土体的应变、应力和时间的关系,对比分析两种软弱土蠕变性状的差异和影响因素,同时给出次固结系数的变化规律。试验结果表明,分级加载下两种滨海软土均具有明显的非线性蠕变特性,高应力水平下经排水加固的吹填土最终变形量明显低于软黏土,而次固结变形较大;吹填土的一维固结蠕变特性受加荷比和试样高度影响,加荷比越大、高度越高土样最终蠕变量越大;次固结系数与加荷比和荷载等级有关,表现为次固结系数随荷载增大先增大后减小,峰值随加荷比增大而减小。     

高强混凝土板的抗爆性能试验研究

通过两组HHT600高强混凝土(RC)板和普通RC板的抗爆炸试验,研究裂缝的产生、开展过程,分析了这两种板的压力、位移、加速度、应变时程响应及破坏特征。结果表明:板配筋采用HHT600级高强钢筋,能有效减少裂缝的开展,提高钢筋混凝土板的抗爆性能。研究成果为高强钢筋在防护结构中的推广使用及设计提供参考。     

Minimizing data collection for field calibration of steady-state virtual sensors for HVAC equipment

The paper presents an algorithm to minimize the amount of data collection for calibration of steady-state virtual sensors when obtained during normal operation of HVAC equipment in the field. If virtual sensors were calibrated using laboratory data, the amount of the calibration data could be minimized using design of experiment techniques. However, these techniques are not applicable to data from field operating equipment since most of the operating conditions are not controllable (e.g., ambient temperature, loads). In this paper, an algorithm to minimize the data collection period for calibration of steady-state virtual sensors is developed based on sensor accuracy, reliability and applicability. Application of the method is demonstrated for calibration of hourly electricity consumption virtual sensors for 3 packaged air conditioners that are serving a small commercial building, and the method terminated the calibration process after about 3 weeks of data collection for all units with very accurate estimates of electricity consumption.     

Evaluation of gluing of CFRP onto concrete structures by infrared thermography coupled with thermal impedance

Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) have been increasingly employed for structural strengthening, and are attached to structures using bonding adhesives. The aim of this work is to characterize defects in the bond between CFRP and concrete (after they are located by pulse infrared thermography), and assign the defects a “numerical value” (ranging from 0 for a complete air–gap to 1 for a fully glued bond). Quantitative characterization is performed by measuring the thermal impedance, and then identifying the thermophysical parameters of the system through fitting the measured impedance to a theoretical model. An inversion procedure is carried out to estimate the unknown parameters, without prior knowledge of sample properties. In particular, it is possible to estimate more accurately both the amount of glue within a defect and the thermal contact resistance.     

Big data and urban system model - Substitutes or complements? A case study of modelling commuting patterns in Beijing

The emergence of urban big data is transforming the existing research paradigms in urban studies. New theories and analytical methods are required to meet the methodological challenges. This paper empirically compares a data-driven approach and an urban-system-model approach through a case study of modelling the commuting patterns in Beijing. For the data-driven approach, the novel location-based-services (LBS) data are explored to identify the employment-residence location of the service users. For the modelling approach, a spatial equilibrium model is calibrated for base year 2010 and is used to simulate the commuting patterns for Beijing 2015 based on exogenous development projections. The results of the two approaches are then compared against the benchmark statistics for Beijing 2015. The comparison shows that the LBS data perform better in detecting residence locations than employment locations. The model prediction fits better with the benchmark, while the errors of the LBS data tend to vary significantly across space. For amplifying the LBS sample data to represent the full population, uniform scale factor thus should be avoided. In addition, the ineffectiveness of representing short-distance commuting for the LBS data is revealed by the comparison with the model predicted flows. In light of the strength and weakness of the respective approach, the prospect of a collaborative use of big data and urban system models is explored in the conclusion.     

Ethanol consumption in Brazil: Empirical facts based on persistence,seasonality and breaks

This paper investigates the consumption of sugar cane ethanol in Brazil for the time period from January 2000 to December 2012. We examine ethanol and gasoline consumption along with the price ratio series. Two important features of the data are analyzed, in particular, its degree of persistence and the seasonality. The results show that the two series of consumption are fractionally integrated with orders of integration smaller than 1 implying that shocks in the series will disappear in the long run. On the other hand, the price ratio series displays an order of integration higher than 1 implying lack of mean reversion behavior. This suggests that strong policy measures must be adopted on prices in the event of shocks since they do not recover by themselves in the long run.     

Development of a superhydrophobic polyurethane-based coating from a two-step plasma-fluoroalkyl silane treatment

A method of achieving a superhydrophobic surface based upon a highly filled polyurethane (PU) paint coating has been demonstrated through the use of a combined oxygen/argon plasma pretreatment and a fluoroalkyl silane (FAS) final treatment.The combined plasma-FAS treated PU surface has been investigated and characterised using: field emission gun secondary electron microscope (FEG-SEM); X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX); water contact angle analysis (WCA); atomic force microscopy (AFM), and; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).It was found that the oxygen/argon plasma treatment increased both the surface roughness (R_a) and surface free energy (SFE) of the PU paint coating from approximately 60–320 nm, and, from ~52 to ~80 mN/m respectively. It was also found that the plasma process created a multiscale roughened texture through the process of differential ablation between the PU polymer and the barium sulphate solid content, which is present in the paint as an extender, and other additives. In addition, the process also imparted favourable polar groups into the PU surface from the ionised and radical oxygen species in the plasma.When the FAS coating was subsequently applied to the PU without prior plasma treatment, there was a significant increases in water contact angles. This parameter increased from approximately 60° on untreated PU to around 130° with FAS applied. In this case, the SFE decreased to ~7.5 mN/m and showed 42.0 at% fluorine present as indicated by XPS.However, subsequently applying the FAS polymer after plasma pretreatment takes advantage of the known synergistic relationship that exists between surface roughness and low surface free energy coatings. The two processes combined to create superhydrophobicity with a surface that exhibited water contact angles up to 153.1°. With this optimised process, the apparent SFE was 0.84 mN/m with a more highly fluorinated surface present. In this case 47.2 at% surface fluorine was observed by XPS.In addition to changes in SFE, plasma treatment was also observed to alter levels of surface gloss and colour. After exposure to 600 s of plasma gloss levels are shown to reduce from values of from ~50 to ~21 (GU), with small but significant corresponding increases in the lightness and yellowness of the surface.