Action strategies for strengthening industrial clusters in southern Taiwan

For the past decade, the Taiwanese government has applied the policy of “North heavy, South light” to put more emphasis on development in northern Taiwan instead of the south. This has resulted in uneven development between the northern and southern regions, especially when introducing, developing, and supporting high technology and resource allocation in education. Industry clusters have become the centerpiece of economic development policy in many parts of the world. In this study, it is assumed that there are two categories of less-advantaged regions in Taiwan: (1) older industrialized regions dominated by labor-intensive/capital-intensive industries, and (2) industrial regions that have merged with potential high-technology small firms but still lack infrastructure. This study discusses the following points: (a) How do industrial clusters work in action? (b) What barriers do less-advantaged industrial clusters face? (c) What action strategies promote less-advantaged industrial clusters?     

狭缝中生存——浅谈影响建筑师理想实现的因素

本文根据作者最近所参与“北大附中重庆实验学校”的工程项目中的所见所闻,结合国内建筑市场的实际情况,探讨了中国建筑师在理想实现过程中,所面临的各种困难及其背后深刻的社会原因,希望借此启发一些正在为自己的理想而在日夜奋斗着的年轻建筑师们。为了形象地说明这些因素对一项优秀建筑项目的产生所起的作用,文中采用了量化的百分比评价体系。     

Credibility and applicability of virtual reality models in design and construction

In this paper, we present the findings from an extensive study of the use of virtual reality (VR) models in large construction projects. The study includes two parts: The first part presents a quantitative questionnaire designed to investigate how VR models are experienced and assessed by the workforce at a building site. The second part includes a qualitative field survey of how VR models can be applied and accepted by professionals in the design and planning process of a large pelletizing plant. Through mainly studying persons who had little or no experience with advanced information technology (IT), we hoped to reveal the attitudes of the average person working at a construction site rather than of an IT expert. In summary, the study shows that the VR models in both projects have been very useful and well accepted by the users. Today’s information flow is, from a general point of view, considered to be insufficient and the hypothesis is that using VR models in the construction process have the potential to minimize waste of resources and improve the final result.     

Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire profiles of veterans with traumatic combat exposure: Externalizing and internalizing subtypes.

This study used the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, in press) to identify personality-based subtypes of posttraumatic response. Cluster analyses of MPQs completed by combat veterans revealed subgroups that differed on measures relating to the externalization versus internalization of distress. The MPQ profile of the externalizing cluster was defined by low Constraint and Harmavoidance coupled with high Alienation and Aggression. Individuals in this cluster also had histories of delinquency and high rates of substance-related disorder. In comparison, the MPQ profile of the internalizing cluster was characterized by lower Positive Emotionality, Alienation, and Aggression and higher Constraint, and individuals in this cluster showed high rates of depressive disorder. These findings suggest that dispositions toward externalizing versus internalizing psychopathology may account for heterogeneity in the expression of posttraumatic responses, including patterns of comorbidity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspective:Societally connected multimedia across cultures

The advance of the Internet in the past decade has radically changed the way people communicate and col- laborate with each other. Physical distance is no more a barrier in online social networks, but cultural differences (at the individual, community, as well as societal levels) still govern human-human interactions and must be con- sidered and leveraged in the online world. The rapid de-ployment of high-speed Internet allows humans to interact using a rich set of multimedia data such as texts, pictures, and videos. This position paper proposes to define a new research area called ’connected multimedia’, which is the study of a collection of research issues of the super-area social media that receive little attention in the literature. By connected multimedia, we mean the study of the social and technical interactions among users, multimedia data, and devices across cultures and explicitly exploiting the cultural differences. We justify why it is necessary to bring attention to this new research area and what benefits of this new research area may bring to the broader scientific research community and the humanity.     

基于博弈论的社交网络的控制方法

社交网络虽然实现了网络化的人际信息交流和交友．但同时也存在着大量的例如个人隐私信息泄露等问题。面对这种情况,计算机学术界提出一种基于博弈论的能够避免泄露用户隐私信息的新型的社交网络的访问控制方法。就这一基于博弈论的社交网络控制方法进行相关的简述和分析,以便于人们了解和认识这种社交网络的博弈论控制方法。     

Discrete cost optimization of composite floor system using social harmony search model

This paper presents a social harmony search algorithm model for the cost optimization of composite floor system with discrete variables. The total cost function includes the costs of concrete, steel beam and shear studs. The design is based on AISC load and resistance factor design specifications and plastic design concepts. Here, six decision variables are considered for the objective function. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed model in optimizing composite floor system designs, two design examples taken from the literature are studied. It is shown that use of the presented model results in significant cost saving. Hence, it can be of practical value to structural designers. Also the proposed model is compared to the original harmony search, its recently developed variants, and other meta-heuristic algorithms to illustrate the superiority of the present method in convergence and leading to better solutions. In order to investigate the effects of beam spans and loadings on the cost optimization of composite floor system a parametric study is also conducted.     

From ethnographic record to system design

This paper explores the issues involved in moving from ethnographic explorations of work in context to a practical contribution to system design. It does so using the example of an interdisciplinary research project involving sociologists and computer scientists in the domain of air traffic control systems. It forms a pair with another paper (Sommerville et al., 1992) exploring these questions from the perspective of our computer science partners. We characterise ethnography as a research method, and consider the differences between undertaking it for strictly sociological or anthropological purposes by contrast with interdisciplinary and design purposes. We summarise some of our results in ethnographic explications of the work of air traffic controllers, and the sociality which it manifests. We describe the dialogues involved in rendering these observations informative for systems design, and the mutual translations implied in attempting to reconcile sociological with software engineering questions about supporting the work. We conclude by specifying some features of cooperative work which an engineering approach is in danger of overlooking; the ways, and limits, in which ethnographers can form a bridge between users and designers; and some of the conflicts of interest entrained in generating technical change.The research is funded by the UK MRC/SERC/ESRC Cognitive Science/HCI Initiative with the title Social Analysis of Control Systems for HCI Design, grant number SPG 8931598. The computer science partners are Professor Ian Sommerville, Dr Tom Rodden, Dr Pete Sawyer and Mr Richard Bentley. Thanks are due to Val King, Kjeldt Schmidt, Ian Sommerville and Tom Rodden for very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

A case study: California utilities and the progressive business model

Concentration on the new technological and funding requirements for decarbonizing utilities has obfuscated the reality that there is a new utility business model. The Progressive Business Model is legislation and regulatory actions taken to address climate change. Lacking a feedback loop for policy correction, it has raised utility rates, coopted utility management’s operational and investment independence, and sacrificed ratepayer safety and reliability.