南京河西地区软土场地地震动参数研究

根据南京河西地区所处的地震地质环境、地震活动环境及基岩地震动衰减规律 ,对所选取的某个典型工程软土场地 ,进行了地震危险性分析 ,给出了基岩地震动参数 ;对场地的地震动效应进行了研究 ,给出了 5 0a及10 0a超越概率水平为 6 3%、10 %和 3%的场地地震动参数。该成果对河西地区的工程抗震设计有一定的参考价值     

The effects of time-compressed instruction and redundancy on learning and learners’ perceptions of cognitive load

Can increasing the speed of audio narration in multimedia instruction decrease training time and still maintain learning? The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of time-compressed instruction and redundancy on learning and learners’ perceptions of cognitive load. 154 university students were placed into conditions that consisted of time-compression (0%, 25%, or 50%) and redundancy (redundant text and narration or narration only). Participants were presented with multimedia instruction on the human heart and its parts then given factual and problem solving knowledge tests, a cognitive load measure, and a review behavior (back and replay buttons) measure. Results of the study indicated that participants who were presented 0% and 25% compression obtained similar scores on both the factual and problem solving measures. Additionally, they indicated similar levels of cognitive load. Participants who were presented redundant instruction were not able to perform as well as participants presented non-redundant instruction.     

Note on “Unrelated parallel-machine scheduling with deteriorating maintenance activities”

In this note, we prove that both problems studied by Cheng et al. [Cheng, T. C. E., Hsu, C.-J., & Yang, D.-L. (2011). Unrelated parallel-machine scheduling with deteriorating maintenance activities. Computers and Industrial Engineering, 60, 602–605] can be solved in O(n^m+3) time no matter what the processing time of a job after a maintenance activity is greater or less than its processing time before the maintenance activity, where m is the number of machines and n is the number of jobs.     

Environmental support hypothesis in designing multimedia training for older adults: Is less always more?

This study explores younger and older adults learning of MS Publisher functionalities from a multimedia tutorial. Twenty younger and twenty three older adults assigned to a redundant (experimental) or non-redundant (control) condition were taught how to create a greeting card, while the results of their learning were assessed with immediate and delayed performance measures. While younger learners benefited from a non-redundant condition, older learners exhibited an opposite trend. Redundant condition was beneficial for their performance efficiency on a set of a transfer tasks, and their troubleshooting performance during the delayed session. From a cognitive load perspective, using a redundant text along with an audio narration overloads learner’s working memory by placing more strain on the visual pathway and not providing any additional cognitive advantage. From an environmental support standpoint and decreased processing resources view of cognitive aging, providing additional representational support helps reducing the task demands for older adults and results in better learning. The results have cognitive and practical implications for the design of multimedia learning environments for older adults.     

The influence of virtual presence: Effects on experienced cognitive load and learning outcomes in educational computer games

Does the immersive design of an educational gaming environment affect learners’ virtual presence and how much do they learn? Does virtual presence affect learning? This study tries to answer these questions by examining the differences in virtual presence and learning outcomes in two different computer-based multimedia environments: a gaming environment with high immersive design vs. hypertext learning environment with low immersive design. As the main focus, the effect of virtual presence on learning is also explained and tested. By identifying virtual presence as a variable that may determine learning, it is argued that computer gaming environments present a new challenge for researchers to investigate, particularly, the effects of virtual presence on the immersive design of games in order to help designers to predict which instructional configurations will maximize learning performance. In general, results revealed that the high-immersive gaming environment leads to the strongest form of virtual presence but also decreased learning. Although regression analyses indicate that virtual presence positively influences trivial- and non-trivial learning outcomes, learners who learned in a low-immersive environment outperformed the gaming group. A mediation analysis showed that the relation between virtual presence and non-trivial learning outcomes is partly mediated through increased cognitive load.     

Guidelines for energetic load in three methods of refuse collecting

The energetic load and guidelines were formulated for energetic load in three methods of refuse collecting. These methods were collecting refuse in polythene bags (in a city area and in a suburb), in two-wheeled mini-containers and in large four-wheeled containers. To determine the energetic load of the collecting methods, these collecting methods were simulated in the laboratory. The simulation protocols were based on data such as weight of the handled materials, and the frequency and duration of the most prominent refuse collecting activities as found in the preliminary field study. During the execution of the protocols the heart rate and oxygen uptake were continuously recorded. The maximal oxygen uptake was determined during a continuous running protocol on a treadmill. The energetic load was expressed in terms of percentage of the maximal oxygen uptake. As the limit for the energetic load a value of 30% of the maximal oxygen uptake during an 8-h working day was chosen. The limit for energetic overload was exceeded for the maximal oxygen uptake for refuse collecting with polythene bags in a city area (44·5%), collecting with bags in a suburb (37·2%) and with mini-containers. The percentage of the maximal oxygen uptake for collecting with large containers was 28·4%, which was below the limit for the energetic load of 30%. Guidelines were formulated for the relevant occupational field terms: maximal amount of collecting hours and maximal amount of collected refuse per collector per hour. The guidelines were formulated in percentiles (P₉₀ and P₇₅). This means that 90 and 75% of the refuse collecting population in The Netherlands will be prevented from having an energetic overload above the limit of 30% of the maximal oxygen uptake.     

The influence of rifle carriage on the kinetics of human gait

The influence that rifle carriage has on human gait has received little attention in the published literature. Rifle carriage has two main effects, to add load to the anterior of the body and to restrict natural arm swing patterns. Kinetic data were collected from 15 male participants, with 10 trials in each of four experimental conditions. The conditions were: walking without a load (used as a control condition); carrying a lightweight rifle simulator, which restricted arm movements but applied no additional load; wearing a 4.4 kg diving belt, which allowed arms to move freely; carrying a weighted (4.4 kg) replica SA80 rifle. Walking speed was fixed at 1.5 m/s (±5%) and data were sampled at 400 Hz. Results showed that rifle carriage significantly alters the ground reaction forces produced during walking, the most important effects being an increase in the impact peak and mediolateral forces. This study suggests that these effects are due to the increased range of motion of the body's centre of mass caused by the impeding of natural arm swing patterns. The subsequent effect on the potential development of injuries in rifle carriers is unknown.     

Effects of military load carriage on kinematics of gait

Manual load carriage is a universal activity and an inevitable part of the daily schedule of a soldier. Indian Infantry soldiers carry loads on the waist, back, shoulders and in the hands for a marching order. There is no reported study on the effects of load on gait in this population. It is important to evaluate their kinematic responses to existing load carriage operations and to provide guidelines towards the future design of heavy military backpacks (BPs) for optimising soldiers' performance. Kinematic changes of gait parameters in healthy male infantry soldiers whilst carrying no load (NL) and military loads of 4.2–17.5 kg (6.5–27.2% body weight) were investigated. All comparisons were conducted at a self-selected speed. Soldier characteristics were: mean (SD) age 23.3 (2.6) years; height 172.0 (3.8) cm; weight 64.3 (7.4) kg. Walk trials were collected using a 3-D Motion Analysis System. Results were subjected to one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett post hoc test. There were increases in step length, stride length, cadence and midstance with the addition of a load compared to NL. These findings were resultant of an adaptive phenomenon within the individual to counterbalance load effect along with changes in speed. Ankle and hip ranges of motion (ROM) were significant. The ankle was more dorsiflexed, the knee and hip were more flexed during foot strike and helped in absorption of the load. The trunk showed more forward leaning with the addition of a load to adjust the centre of mass of the body and BP system back to the NL condition. Significant increases in ankle and hip ROM and trunk forward inclination (≥10°) with lighter loads, such as a BP (10.7 kg), BP with rifle (14.9 kg) and BP with a light machine gun (17.5 kg), may cause joint injuries. It is concluded that the existing BP needs design improvisation specifically for use in low intensity conflict environments.

Statement of Relevance:The present study evaluates spatial, temporal and angular changes at trunk and limb joints during military load carriage of relatively lighter magnitude. Studies on similar aspects on the specific population are limited. These data can be used for optimising load carriage and designing ensembles, especially a heavy BP, for military operations.     

RESEARCH ON HUMAN FACTORS IN ROAD TRANSPORT

The paper attempts to list the most important fields in which research on human factors in road transport is required.

The importance of improving the efficiency of road transport is emphasized, and the figures for road casualties are quoted to demonstrate the need to study the behaviour of cyclists, motor-cyclists and pedestrians as well as motorists.

The problems on which research is required are grouped under the six headings of perception, communication of information, control of the vehicle, comfort, protection of occupants, and behaviour of drivers. Subjects regarded as of particular interest are (1) the communication of information to the driver, (2) the design of the vehicle to improve control by the driver, (3) crash injury protection for the motorist and for the motor-cyclist, and (4) the study of the driving task.     

Satisfying quality requirements in the design of a partition‐based,distributed stock trading system

Although quality requirements (QRs) have become a major drive in today's software development, there have been very few real‐world examples in the literature that demonstrate how to meet these requirements. This paper presents such an example. Specifically, the paper describes the design of a partition‐based distributed stock trading service system that satisfies a set of QRs related to resource utilization, performance, scalability and availability. The paper evaluates this design through detailed experiments and discusses some design alternatives and the lessons learned. Central to this design are a static load distribution strategy and a dynamic load balancing strategy. The first strategy is to achieve an initial balanced workload on the system's server cluster during the system initialization time, whereas the second strategy is to maintain this balanced workload throughout the system execution time. Together, these two strategies work in unison to ensure that the server resources are efficiently utilized; the user requests are processed with the required speed; the application is partitioned with sufficient room to scale; and the system is highly available. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.