Enhanced auditory feedback for Korean touch screen keyboards

With the increasing popularity of touch screen mobile devices, improving the usability and the user experience while inputting text on these devices is becoming increasingly important. Most conventional touch screen keyboards on mobile devices rely heavily on visual feedback, while auditory feedback seldom includes any useful information about what is being inputted by the user. The auditory feedback usually simply replicates the sounds produced by a physical keyboard. This paper describes the development of an enhanced auditory feedback mechanism for a Korean touch screen keyboard called the enhanced auditory feedback (EAF) mechanism. EAF has subtle phonetic auditory feedback generated using the acoustic phonetic features of human speech. While typing with EAF, users can acquire non-invasive auditory clues about the keys pressed. In this work, we compare conventional auditory feedback for a touch screen keyboard used in touch screen mobile devices with that of EAF and explore the possibility of using enhanced auditory feedback for touch screen keyboards.     

Novel neural network modeling method and applications

Neural networks play an important role for designing the parametric model of electromagnetic structures. The current neural network methods are unfit for a circuit model with many input variables because it is costly to extract a large number of the training data and test data to complete the highly nonlinear mapping approximation. This article proposes a new neural network modeling method—the multidimensional neural network model, which can be used to solve the issue of multivariable radiofrequency and microwave passive device modeling. The entire multidimensional neural network modeling problem is simplified into a set of neural network submodels through decomposition method. Then the submodels are combined into an equivalent model, and the final entire model is produced through the neural‐network mapping model developed with the submodels and equivalent model. A microstrip hairpin filter model is developed using the proposed method. The simulation results show the correctness and the effectivity of the proposed method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:769–779, 2015.     

Continuum electrostatic approach for evaluating positions and interactions of proteins in a bilayer membrane

Orientations of proteins in the membranes are crucial to their function and stability. Unfortunately the exact positions of these proteins in the lipid bilayer are mostly undetermined. Here, the spatial orientation of membrane proteins within the lipid membrane was evaluated using a Poisson–Boltzmann solvent continuum approach to calculate the electrostatic free energy of the protein solvation at various orientations in an implicit bilayer. The solvation energy was obtained by computing the difference in electrostatic energies of the protein in water and in lipid/water environments, treating each as an implicit solvent model. The optimal position of transmembrane proteins (TMP) in a lipid bilayer is identified by the minimum in the “downhill” pathway of the solvation energy landscape. The energy landscape pattern was considerably conserved in various TMP classes. Evaluation of the position of 1060 membrane proteins from the orientations of proteins in membranes (OPM) database revealed that most of the polytopic and β-barrel proteins were in good agreement with those of the OPM database. The study provides a useful scheme for estimating the membrane solvation energy made by lipid-exposed amino acids in membrane proteins. In addition, our results tested with the bacterial potassium channel model demonstrated the potential usefulness of the approach in assessing the quality of membrane protein models. The present approach should be applicable for constructing transmembrane proteins–lipid configuration suitable for membrane protein simulations and will have utility for the structural modeling of membrane proteins.     

Water–energy–food nexus in a transboundary context: the Euphrates–Tigris river basin as a case study

The interlinkage between water, energy and food security and its transboundary relevance is becoming increasingly important. The paper analyses the evolution of transboundary water resources management in the Euphrates–Tigris basin with specific reference to interlinkages between water, food and energy policies at national and transboundary levels, and it explores how the policy shifts at the highest decision-making level have served to produce synergies for cooperation among the riparians or vice versa.     

面向智能家居/智慧生活的服务机器人技术与系统

随着机器人技术的发展以及服务机器人形态的日益丰富,智能家居/智慧生活逐渐成为一种未来的生活方式。文章探索了智能家居和智慧生活的服务机器人技术与系统,在其众多的关键技术中,重点探讨了面向服务机器人的云端融合技术以及高用户体验度的人-机器人交互技术。并以家庭服务机器人为例,实现了基于微信和语音云的人-机器人交互方式,验证了基于云架构的家庭服务机器人体系结构的可行性。文章所提出的服务机器人技术与系统是智能家居、智慧生活的一种实现方式,为未来形形色色的服务机器人技术方案提供了一些思路。     

两种动水压力模型重力坝地震动力损伤比较分析

采用基于位移格式的流体单元与弹塑性损伤本构的固体单元分析了坝体—水库耦合系统在强震下库水对重力坝的动力响应、坝体内部应力分布以及损伤的影响。对流固耦合模型与附加质量模型的坝体损伤分析结果进行比较发现,附加质量模型不仅对上游坝面的动水压力有放大作用,而且对坝体的其他动力响应,如位移、加速度,也有不同程度的放大作用。同时,附加质量模型对地震中坝体内部应力及损伤也有一定的放大作用。可见,流固耦合模型分析大坝—水库系统相互作用更接近现实情况。     

三峡库区龙河流域降雨和人类活动对水沙关系变化贡献率分析

以三峡库区中心区域的龙河流域为研究对象,利用1963—2010年流域水沙资料,采用Pettitt突变点检验、累积距平法及双累积曲线法分析了该流域输沙量和降雨量的变化趋势,判别出降雨量在1982年、输沙量在1982年和1990年发生了突变。并采用累积量斜率变化率比较法分析了1963—1981年,1982—1990年,1991—2010年3个时段降雨量和人类活动在龙河流域输沙量变化中的相对贡献率。研究表明:以1963—1981年为基准期,1982—1990年间降雨量和人类活动贡献率分别为29.49%和60.51%,1991—2010年间分别为3.38%和96.62%;以1982—1990年为基准期时,1991—2010年人类活动对输沙减小的贡献率为100%。该研究揭示了1963—2010年输沙量的变化趋势及降雨和人类活动对其贡献率,研究不仅对该区水土流失治理、水土保持效益评价具有重要意义,同时为研究三峡水库区间水沙锐减的原因提供一定的理论支持。     

我国北方区域地下水演化研究综述

基于"六五"至"十二五"期间有关区域地下水演化的国家和省部级重点科技项目主要成果,对近30年来我国地下水演化研究的主要进展进行了综述。我国区域地下水演化研究主要集中在北方地区,项目选题的起源和立项的时代背景具有鲜明的时代性和社会重大需求驱动,包括华北和西北地区流域尺度地下水演化的国家重点项目研究,都是围绕国家目标或区域经济发展重大需求,及时揭示了气候变化和人类活动影响下区域地下水演化的关键科技问题,突显了重大科学研究的时代性和必要性。     

Analysis of TRIPS Agreement and the justification of international IP rights protection in the WTO's multilateral trading system,with particular reference to pharmaceutical patents

The entry of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement has seen the developing countries and the least developed countries (LDCs) suffer from the excessive burden of obligations imposed under the Agreement to embrace and implement a higher standard of intellectual property (IP) protection. One of the areas where the impact of the measures is most felt is on accessibility to affordable medicines for frontline treatment of diseases in developing countries and LDCs, where the majority of the HIV/AIDS sufferers come from. This inevitable plight, although well known, and posited by the developing countries and LDCs during the Uruguay round of negotiations, was overlooked. This also necessitated the Doha Deceleration, which does not seem to have addressed the problem. The developed countries have also successfully utilised the TRIPS Agreement's IP rights protection criteria as a benchmark, to develop a much higher IP rights protection agenda through the introduction of TRIPS-plus provisions in bilateral and other multilateral agreements entered into with developing countries. The winners in the game are the patent-holding pharmaceutical corporations, software corporations, media corporations, and the developed countries where they are incorporated. The ones at the receiving end are the developing countries and the LDCs who were promised technology transfer to build a modern economy by the developed countries, but are faced with multiple problems of non-availability of affordable medicines for health care, besides others. This article seeks to study the justification for an extended IP rights protection under the TRIPS Agreement through an analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of the IP rights and the patent regime. It will be argued that the TRIPS Agreement is a major obstacle that the developing countries and the LDCs have been made to face as Members of the WTO (World Trade Organisation), with no end in sight for their miseries, and that the only possible solution is a review or an amendment of the TRIPS Agreement.