城市中心商务区步行环境研究

文章认为商务区步行环境的研究对活跃市民生活、提高城市的区域地位起着重要的作用。立体多元化的步行系统将成为步行环境发展的主要方向。

A Study on Planetary Visual Odometry Optimization： Time Constraints and Reliability

Robust and efficient vision systems are essential in such a way to support different kinds of autonomous robotic behaviors linked to the capability to interact with the surrounding environment, without relying on any a priori knowledge. Within space missions, above all those involving rovers that have to explore planetary surfaces, vision can play a key role in the improvement of autonomous navigation functionalities： besides obstacle avoidance and hazard detection along the traveling, vision can in fact provide accurate motion estimation in order to constantly monitor all paths executed by the rover. The present work basically regards the development of an effective visual odometry system, focusing as much as possible on issues such as continuous operating mode, system speed and reliability.

4D ConflictFree Trajectory Planning for Fixed-Wing UAV

Four-dimensional trajectory based operation(4D-TBO)is believed to enhance the planning and execution of efficient flights,reduce potential conflicts and resolve upcoming tremendous flight demand.Most of the 4D trajectory planning related studies have focused on manned aircraft instead of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).This paper focuses on planning conflict-free 4D trajectories for fixed-wing UAVs before the departure or during the flight planning.A 4D trajectory generation technique based on Tau theory is developed,which can incorporate the time constraints over the waypoint sequence in the flight plan.Then the 4D trajectory is optimized by the particle swarm optimization(PSO)algorithm.Further simulations are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method,which would offer a good chance for integrating UAV into civil airspace in the future.

Concept Paper： Developing Pavement Structural Deterioration Curves

A SN （structural number） can be calculated for a road pavement from the properties and thicknesses of the surface, basecourse, sub-base and subgrade. Historically, the cost of collecting structural data has been very high. Data was initially collected using Benkelman Beams and now by FWD （falling weight deflectometer）. The structural strength of pavements weakens over time due to environmental and traffic loading factors but due to a lack of data, no structural deterioration curve for pavements has been implemented in a PMS （pavement management system）. IRI （international roughness index） is a measure of the road longitudinal profile and has been used as a proxy for a pavement’s structural integrity. This paper offers two conceptual methods to develop PSDC （pavement structural deterioration curves）. Firstly, structural data are grouped in sets by design ESA （equivalent standard axles）. An ISN （“initial” SN）, SNI （intermediate SN） and a TSN （terminal SN）, are used to develop the curves. Using FWD data, the ISN is the SN after the pavement is rehabilitated （Financial Accounting “Modern Equivalent”）. Intermediate SNIs, are SNs other than the ISN and TSN. The TSN was defined as the SN of the pavement when it was approved for pavement rehabilitation. The second method is to use TSD （traffic speed deflectometer） data. The road network already divided into road blocks, is grouped by traffic loading. For each traffic loading group, road blocks that have had a recent pavement rehabilitation, are used to calculate the ISN and those planned for pavement rehabilitation to calculate the TSN. The remaining SNs are used to complete the age-based or if available, historical traffic loading-based SNIs.

Attempting Discussion of Mythological Concepts＇ Determinism

Current sciences fail in understanding the future trends of human beings＇ behaviors and cultures. From the hunting tribes to the agricultural society, the civilized country, and then to the industrial society, none of these developments is the results of human beings＇ reasonable proposal. The human beings are ＂developed＂, i.e. pushed forward by certain invisible forces. As being cultural, they are dominated by their cultural concepts. To explore the source of every civilization＇s concepts, the formation history of its mythological concepts during the pre-historic period or at the beginning of its civilization shall be studied first. By interpreting the first literature works at the beginning of western civilization, the temporary mythologists reveal the rule that mythological concepts dominate the ritual behaviors and narrative expressions. This paper interprets the historical narratives in Records of the Grand Historian.＂ Annals of the First Emperor of Qin, to reproduce the concepts that dominate China＇s national rulers, present the theory of Mythological Concepts＇ Determinism, and correspond to the counter-force of ideology put forward by Friedrich Engels in his later years and the religious concepts＇ determinism by Max Weber, so as to illustrate the mythological concepts＇ function as the prototype code of ideology, and refer to a common and effective directory approach of social science studies.

The Social Limitations in the Development of Asian American Literature

This paper traces the social limitations in the development of Asian American literature. The label ＂Asian American literature＂ is so instrumental in instituting the literature, can also regulate creativity. As a strategic term and group identification, ＂Asian American＂ lends itself to the illusion of unity and homogeneity. Scholars differ in the way they elect to demarcate Asian American literature. One of the fundamental barriers to understanding and appreciating Asian American literary expression has been the existence of race stereotypes about Asians in American popular culture. For many Asian American writers, ethnic authenticity is a necessary but weak choice Most early immigrant writers write to challenge the negative view of Asia in the West and see themselves as ambassadors of goodwill to the West. The purpose is to mark difference as exotica and appeal to the benign curiosity of the Western readers while appeal to notions of universal humanity. This type of strong ethnic quotient writing continues to exist in various guises even today. The trade publishers have a predilection for Asian American personal narratives that stress the ＂model minority＂ discourse, ＂good workers＂ image, and Asian Americans＇ ability to accommodate to the basic rules of American society. Asian American writers never stop attempting to build bridges. But we should remind ourselves that boundary crossing must not be merely an aesthetic and intellectual exercise .

Pond Water Quality and Cyclops Population in Dracunculiasis Endemic Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria

This study investigated the association between Cyclops population and physico-chemical properties of pond water in villages selected from Odeda and Obafemi-Owode areas of Ogun State, Nigeria. Epidemiological data on guinea worm were collected from Global 2000 South-West Zonal Office. Two villages were selected from each of Odeda and Obafemi-Owode LGAs while one village was sampled from Abeokuta North LGA as control. Physico-chemical analysis and microscopic examination of pond water utilized for domestic purpose in the selected villages were conducted. Mean values of 6.78±0.10, 33.00±0.14℃, 1.09＋0.80 mg/L and 1.30±0.25 mg/L were recorded for pH, temperature, DO and nitrate respectively while control had 7.30±0.14, 36.30±14℃2, 2.72±0.14 mg/L and 5.80±0.57 mg/L. These values with the exception of DO and nitrate were within WHO standard but vary significantly （P〈0.05） between the villages. The results further showed that BOD, COD and acidity were positively correlated with Cyclops population during the rainy and dry seasons while temperature, nitrate, pH, and alkalinity have negative correlation coefficients （r=-0.81, -0.91） with Cyclops population during the two seasons. Regression analysis showed that nitrate, BOD and acidity levels explained 67.7 percent, 50.4 percent and 44.5 percent of Cyclops population in the ponds. Guinea worm eradication in endemic rural areas should incorporate ecological strategy.

Nonverbal Communication and Cultural Foundation in Intercultural Communication

In today＇ s era of globalization, intercultural communication has become an important subject. Space is an aspect of crosscultural communication Nonverbal communication, it implies the psychological boundaries of human communication, conducting this study helps to understand different cultures, and reduces cultural conflict. Culture reflects the characteristics of a nation, guiding people behavior in concept of society. With globalization developing, people are eager to interact with people from different cultural backgrounds, so cross-cultural communication society today is one of the most fashionable terms. The differences between cultures tend to give unexpected difficulties caused by differences.

Route optimization model for pedestrian evacuation in metro hubs

The route optimization problem for road networks was applied to pedestrian flow.Evacuation path networks with nodes and arcs considering the traffic capacities of facilities were built in metro hubs,and a path impedance function for metro hubs which used the relationships among circulation speed,density and flow rate for pedestrians was defined.Then,a route optimization model which minimizes the movement time of the last evacuee was constructed to optimize evacuation performance.Solutions to the proposed mathematical model were obtained through an iterative optimization process.The route optimization model was applied to Xidan Station of Beijing Metro Line 4 based on the actual situations,and the calculation results of the model were tested using buildingExodus microscopic evacuation simulation software.The simulation result shows that the proposed model shortens the evacuation time by 16.05%,3.15% and 2.78% compared with all or none method,equally split method and Logit model,respectively.Furthermore,when the population gets larger,evacuation efficiency in the proposed model has a greater advantage.

Jan Haicksz Steen＇s Woman at Her Toilet： ＂Provocative Innuendos＂

Jan Haicksz Steen （1626-1679）, a Dutch actor, poet and painter, engaged the viewer with various innuendos and double entendres in his paintings about Woman at Her Toilet. Decoding the conceits introduces the viewer to Dutch artistic astuteness and popular culture. Steen drew the observer into his picture plane through a series of emblematic vignettes. Although he raised questions about cultural mores, morality, and religiosity, none are judgmental. On the contrary, it is the viewer who might or might not articulate a moral judgment according to personal experiences. For Steen, the imagery, filled with complex conceits, is an artistic visual representation to delight the eyes, tantalize the senses, and maybe even spark the intellect.

Preliminary Remarks on Transmission and Communication in Ancient Greece： A Case Study in Mediology

The scope of this paper lies primarily on the recognition of what Debray called transmission and communication, however, in this article exclusively with regard to the Ancient Greek literature and culture. Transmission understood as the process in which ＂agencies and human actors transmit the ideas in historical and diachronic order＂ and communication implying the ＂synchronic interchange by linguistic impact between senders and receivers＂ are presented as two paths in which cultural messages are introduced and transmitted by means of ＂literary production＂. Early Greek literature, which was based on the oral performance and mirrored the language in its prototypical form, seemed to be the main source of information for the reconstruction of the two above processes. In the proposed model, the new understanding of the media introduced by Debray plays the most important role, because in the theory of ＂cultural transmission＂, the medium can be not only ＂a symbolic process, a social code, a material device＂ but also a human being. Therefore, on the basis of this theory, mediology can be described as the way of 4M： message, medium, milieu, and mediation.

Kinetic Behaviors of Catalysis-Driven Growth of Three-Species Aggregates on Base of Exchange-Driven Aggregations

We propose a solvable aggregation model to mimic the evolution of population A, asset B, and the quantifiable resource C in a society. In this system, the population and asset aggregates themselves grow through selfexchanges with the rate kernels Kl（k,j） = K1kj and K2（h,j） = K2kj, respectively. The actions of the population and asset aggregations on the aggregation evolution of resource aggregates are described by the population-catalyzed monomer death of resource aggregates and asset-catalyzed monomer birth of resource aggregates with the rate kerne/s J1（k,j）=J1k and J2（k,j） = J2k, respectively. Meanwhile, the asset and resource aggregates conjunctly catalyze the monomer birth of population aggregates with the rate kernel I1 （k,i,j） = I1ki^μjη, and population and resource aggregates conjunctly catalyze the monomer birth of asset aggregates with the rate kernel /2（k, i, j） = I2ki^νj^η. The kinetic behaviors of species A, B, and C are investigated by means of the mean-field rate equation approach. The effects of the population-catalyzed death and asset-catalyzed birth on the evolution of resource aggregates based on the self-exchanges of population and asset appear in effective forms. The coefficients of the effective population-catalyzed death and the asset-catalyzed birth are expressed as J1e = J1/K1 and J2e= J2/K2, respectively. The aggregate size distribution of C species is found to be crucially dominated by the competition between the effective death and the effective birth. It satisfies the conventional scaling form, generalized scaling form, and modified scaling form in the cases of J1e〈J2e, J1e=J2e, and J1e〉J2e, respectively. Meanwhile, we also find the aggregate size distributions of populations and assets both fall into two distinct categories for different parameters μ,ν, and η： （i） When μ=ν=η=0 and μ=ν=η=1, the population and asset aggregates obey the generalized scaling forms; and （ii） When μ=ν=1,η=0, and μ=ν=η=1, the population and asset aggregates experience gelation transitions at finite times and the scaling forms break down.

On the Alienation in Miss Brill

Katherine Mansfield is a world famous woman master of short stories in English literature. Her stories are sensitive revelations of human behaiour in quite ordinary situations, through which we can glimpse a powerful and sometimes cruelly pessimistic view of life. Miss Brill is one of her short stories published in her collection of stories entitled The Garden Party and Other Stories （2007）, describing an afternoon in the life of a middle-aged spinster who visits the public park on a weekly basis, leading to her reassessment of her view of the world and the secular reality. Short as it is, it is really worth carful analysis and appreciation. This paper will mainly deal with the theme--alienation that the story conveys in two aspects： some obvious alienate elments in Miss Brill, in which some background information is provided; some less obvious alienation in Miss Brill, in which a detailed analysis is made into the story to reveal its alienation.

Sport, Democracy, and the Americanization of Italian Americans

More than 4,000,000 immigrants traveled from Italy to the United States between 1880 and 1924. Most were peasants, largely illiterate, and with no sense of an Italian identity as their ancestral home had only been liberated from centuries of foreign rule in 1861. This study utilizes primary and secondary documents, as well as archival sources and interviews to determine the role of sport in the transition to an Italian identity, and then an American identity within the assimilation process. Second generation youth adopted American sport forms, and some became national heroes in contrast to the stereotype of Italian gangsters. By the 1950s Italians had become icons of popular culture, yet negative stereotypes persisted and assimilation remained fragmented.

The anthropomorphic design and experiments of HIT/DLR five-fingered dexterous hand

This paper presents a new developed anthropomorphic robot dexterous hand： HIT/DLR Hand II. The hand is composed of an independent palm and five identical modular fingers, and each finger has three degree of freedom （DOFs） and four joints. All the actuators and electronics are integrated in the finger body and the palm. Owing to using a new actuator, drivers and a novel arrangement, both the length and width of the finger is about two third of its formner version. By using the wire coupling mecha- nism, the distal phalanx transmission ratio is kept exactly 1 ： 1 in the whole movement range. The packing mechanism which is implemented directly in the finger body and palm not only reduces the size of whole hand but also make it more anthropomorphic. Additionally, the new designed force/torque and position sensors are integrated in the hand for increasing muhisensory capability. To evaluate the performances of the finger mechanism, the position and impedance control experiments are conducted.

Expressive Aspect of Phallia-autocracy in an Indigenous African Society： The Case of Yoruba Proverbs

The patriarchal leaning of most traditional African communities is sign-posted by certain behavioural models which place the woman at the receiving end of certain prejudices in our cultural milieu. Such prejudices manifest in diverse behavioural and relational manners that either peripheralize the woman or out-rightly remove every vestige of human dignity from her being. Language, being a significant carrier of our emotions, biases, beliefs, preference and prejudices, provides a crucial platform for the interrogation of the nature of gender relations and their consequences in any society, such consideration has forced a preponderance of scholarly interest in gender studies in arts and humanities. This study caries out a scholarly investigate into such gender inspired biases through the prison of Yoruba proverbs as a reflection of our cultural practices and beliefs about the position of the woman in a typical traditional Yoruba setting

Human Dignity and Human Rights： A Universal Language for Bioethics

One of the aims of the Universal Declaration on B ioethics and Human Rights （UNESCO） is to ＂promote respect for human dignity and protect human rights＂,l Here are two overarching principles at work, ensuring that the biomedical sciences fulfill their task within an ethical framework. The principle of respect for human dignity is a universal moral concept, meant to be applied in human encounters. Protecting human rights underscores the legal principle of not only affirming the fundamental equality of all human beings, but equally safeguarding it. These two principles are universally defined, but are ordinarily specified by the particular value system of individual cultures in which they are employed. It is within such particular cultural application that their relevance stands out. The thrust of this paper is that, since principles are general action guides, they actually constitute a universal language for the analysis and evaluation of all human conduct. However, there is also recognition of the fact that moral contexts vary from culture to culture, and that while the scope of the two principles above is not restricted by any particular culture, it is indeed those cultural specifics of each moral context that constitute the framework within which the principles become operational. As general action guides, I will argue that these principles lack moral relevance outside of those particular cultural settings wherein they are contextualized. Without such relevance, these principles become meaningless mantras. I will further show that such principles do not merely uphold values informed by particular cultures, but they are an embodiment of values inherent to human nature in general. Consequently, these principles do not just serve as instruments for addressing issues peculiar to ＂Western bioethics＂ or any other particular cultural setting in an exclusive sense, but are also used for moderating bioethics discourse that transcend particular cultural boundaries. I will further explain that such universal discourse is potentially instructive with regards to how cultural universals are viewed in relation to the cultural particulars, and that this discourse essentially becomes a lingua franca for cross-cultural dialogue in bioethics.

Stability margin of the quadruped bionic robot with spinning gait

Spinning gait is valuable for quadruped robot,which can be used to avoid obstacles quickly for robot walking in unstructured environment. A kind of bionic flexible body is presented for quadruped robot to perform the spinning gait. The spinning gait can be achieved by coordinated movement of body laterally bending and legs swing,which can improve the mobility of robot walking in the unstructured environments. The coordinated movement relationship between the body and the leg mechanism is presented. The stability of quadruped robot with spinning gait is analyzed based on the center of gravity( COG) projection method. The effect of different body bending angle on the stability of quadruped robot with spinning gait is mainly studied. For the quadruped robot walking with spinning gait,during one spinning gait cycle,the supporting polygon and the trajectory of COG projection point under different body bending angle are calculated. Finally,the stability margin of quadruped robot with spinning gait under different body bending angle is determined,which can be used to evaluate reasonableness of spinning gait parameters.

Cairo＇s Slums： A Ticking Time Bomb

Despite being one of the symbols of civilization throughout human history, Greater Cairo has many slum areas, hosting a population of three million people living in deteriorating conditions and lacking the basic human necessities. These slums represent a fertile environment for diseases caused by pollution in all its forms and are subject to crimes, rape and theft. There is a huge difference in the state of conditions when comparing the formally planned areas to the informally planned ones. People living in the formally planned settlements, like Nasr City, and in informal ones, like Ezbet El-Haggana, are similar to the kings and queens and slaves of legends. This paper tries to find solutions to the problem of slums and random areas.

Personalizing a Service Robot by Learning Human Habits from Behavioral Footprints

For a domestic personal robot, personalized services are as important as predesigned tasks, because the robot needs to adjust the home state based on the operator's habits. An operator's habits are composed of cues, behaviors, and rewards. This article introduces behavioral footprints to describe the operator's behaviors in a house, and applies the inverse reinforcement learning technique to extract the operator's habits, represented by a reward function. We implemented the proposed approach with a mobile robot on indoor temperature adjustment, and compared this approach with a baseline method that recorded all the cues and behaviors of the operator. The result shows that the proposed approach allows the robot to reveal the operator's habits accurately and adjust the environment state accordingly.