The critical realism of the novels of Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami is a serious belles-lettres writer with a title of petty bourgeois. With calm perspective, his writing points to the profound problems of human society, and also criticizes and analyses the history of World War II which is a closely guarded secret to most Japanese. The important topics of his literature are generally about the exposure of human nature under special time background, various deep problems accompanying with modern civilization, and the wounds brought to human by wars.

Plato as ＂Idealist,＇ and Aristotle as ＂Realist＂ （？） -Reflecting the idea and the ousia in View of Comparative Philosophy

One can see often in explanations of encyclopedia or lexicons of philosophy that Plato manifested primarily the absolute Idealism, whereas Aristotle verified antagonistically the relevance of realism. It is easy to pick up several parts of their representative works and prove that this thesis is corresponded to the original of Plato and Aristotle. But, in reflections of philosophy, we should not ignore a cautious view, focused just on this starting point： If the above mentioned thesis is used like a slogan, ＂Plato for idealism, Aristotle for realism,＂ as it often is, in the meantime there arises a dogmatic position which fixes our mental and intellectual activity only within the frame, so that everyone begins to reflect on Plato or Aristotle from that starting point in a certain framework. A critical and self-critical view of philosophy may bring this position for a query.

An improving energy efficiency cooperation algorithm based on Nash bargaining solution in selfish user cooperative networks

A bandwidth-exchange cooperation algorithm based on the Nash bargaining solution （NBS） is proposed to encourage the selfish users to participate with more cooperation so as to improve the users＇ energy efficiency. As a result, two key problems, i.e. , when to cooperate and how to cooperate, are solved. For the first problem, a proposed cooperation condition that can decide when to cooperate and guarantee users＇ energy efficiency achieved through cooperation is not lower than that achieved without cooperation. For the second problem, the cooperation bandwidth allocations （CBAs） based on the NBS solve the problem how to cooperate when cooperation takes place. Simulation results show that, as the modulation order of quadrature amplitude modulation （QAM） increases, the cooperation between both users only occurs with a large signal-to-noise ratio （SNR）. Meanwhile, the energy efficiency decreases as the modulation order increases. Despite all this, the proposed algorithm can obviously improve the energy efficiency measured in bits-per-Joule compared with non-cooperation.

A Study of Perfecting Cognitive Structure and Improving Writing Skills

The paper is purposed to promote students＇ writing skills and help them perfect their cognitive structure at the same time by designing some writing tasks. The tasks are based on the contents of the teaching materials, and students can get involved in the activities by thinking critically.

Directive Function of Cooperative Principle in Trial Language

This paper aims to study the embodiment and directive function of Cooperative Principle in trial process. By analyzing dialogues in the sample trial transcript, the author will find out the embodiment of Cooperative Principle in trial language, and draw a conclusion that the Cooperative Principle is important to direct the judge to discriminate if the suspect is cooperative, which helps the interrogation succeed.

Optimal decision threshold for soft decision cooperative spectrum sensing

In order to achieve higher spectrum efficiency in cognitive radio （CR） systems, a closed-form expression of the optimal decision threshold for soft decision cooperative spectrum sensing based on the minimum total error probability criterion is derived. With the analytical expression of the optimal decision threshold, the impact of different sensing parameters on the threshold value is studied. Theoretical analyses show that the optimal threshold achieves an efficient trade-off between the missed detection probability and the false alarm probability. Simulation results illustrate that the average signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） and the soft combination schemes have a great influence on the optimal threshold value, whereas the number of samples has a weak impact on the optimal threshold value. Furthermore, for the maximal ratio combing （MRC） and the modified deflection coefficient （MDC） schemes, the optimal decision threshold value increases and approaches a corresponding individual limit value while the number of CR users increases. But the number of CR users has a weak influence on the optimal decision threshold for the equal gain combining （EGC） scheme.

An assessment of coal pillar system stability criteria based on a mechanistic evaluation of the interaction between coal pillars and the overburden

Coal pillar design has historically assigned a factor of safety(Fo S) or stability factor(SF) according to their estimated strength and the assumed overburden load acting on them. Acceptable Fo S values have been assigned based on past mining experience or a statistical link between Fo S and probability of failure(Po F). Pillar width-to-height(w/h) ratio has long been established as having a material influence on both pillar strength and its potential failure mode. However, there has been significant disagreement on using both factor of safety(Fo S) and w/h as part of pillar system stability criterion, as compared to using Fo S in isolation. This paper will argue that there are valid technical reasons to bring w/h ratio into system stability criteria(other than its influence on pillar strength), as it is related to the post-failure stiffness of the pillar, as measured in situ, and its interaction with overburden stiffness. When overburden stiffness is also brought into pillar system stability considerations, two issues emerge. The first is the width-todepth(W/D) ratio of the panel and whether it is sub-critical or super-critical from a surface subsidence perspective. The second relates to a re-evaluation of pillar Fo S based on whether the pillar is in an elastic or non-elastic(i.e., post-yield) state in its as-designed condition, as this is relevant to maintaining overburden stiffness at the highest possible level. The significance of the model is the potential to maximise both reserve recovery and mining efficiencies without any discernible increase in geotechnical risk, particularly in thick seams and higher depth of cover mining situations. At a time when mining economics are, at best, marginal, removing potentially unnecessary design conservatism is of interest to all mine operators and is an important topic for discussion amongst the geotechnical community.

BOOTSTRAP TECHNIQUE FOR ROC ANALYSIS: A STABLE EVALUATION OF FISHER CLASSIFIER PERFORMANCE

This paper presents a novel bootstrap based method for Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis of Fisher classifier. By defining Fisher classifier’s output as a statistic, the bootstrap technique is used to obtain the sampling distributions of the outputs for the positive class and the negative class respectively. As a result, the ROC curve is a plot of all the (False Positive Rate (FPR), True Positive Rate (TPR)) pairs by varying the decision threshold over the whole range of the boot- strap sampling distributions. The advantage of this method is, the bootstrap based ROC curves are much stable than those of the holdout or cross-validation, indicating a more stable ROC analysis of Fisher classifier. Experiments on five data sets publicly available demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Recommendations for Using Wiki in Online Group Projects in Engineering Education

Although Web 2.0 tools like blogs and wikis have been used for supporting collaborative learning in higher education, there are not many reports about implementation of that resource on engineering in Brazil. In this way, the main purpose of this research is to use a wiki platform for online activities and evaluate how students collaborate with each other in online tasks. It was investigated how collaboration can be measured on wiki platform During four-week online activities, 40 students of Civil Engineering course were monitored on Wikispaces~ platform. All students＇ actions were analyzed and classified as low, medium, or high level of collaboration. The data were collected through the statistical reports of Wikispaces~ and Google Analytics platforms. It computed 336 students＇ actions： 16.67% as high level, 45.24% as medium, and 38.10% as low. During informal interview, most of students （70%） related that wiki was a nice tool for collaboration work. The results indicated that wiki platform is an important way to develop innovative activities and tasks for the purpose of improving engineers＇ abilities and skills such as： writing communication, organization, collaboration, and critical thinking development.

The Application of Pragmatic Presupposition in Developing Critical Thinking of Writing

This study aims to explore whether developing critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition can help non-English majors improve their writing achievements.This empirical study employs tests as the instruments.126 non-English majors from a key university of Shandong Province participate in the study.The results of the Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test indicate that most subjects(95%)have inadequate or limited critical thinking ability,which leads to digression,repetitive and lengthy description,and unconvincing arguments,as well as illogical or incoherent structures in writing.After a ten-week teaching instruction from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition,students in experimental group improve their writing achievements,indicating that the instruction of critical thinking ability from the perspective of pragmatic presupposition may have certain effects on their writing performance.The study will promote the application of pragmatic presupposition to writing teaching and offer some implications for the teaching of English writing.

Interacting mechanism and initiation prediction of multiple cracks

The maximum Mode Ⅰ and Mode Ⅱ stress intensity factors(SIFs), KI,kmax(θ) and KII,kmax(θ)(0°<θ<360°), of inclined parallel multi-crack varying with relative positions(including horizontal and vertical spacings) are calculated by the complex function and integration method to analyze their interacting mechanism and determine the strengthening and weakening zone of SIFs. The multi-crack initiation criterion is established based on the ratio of maximum tension-shear SIF to predict crack initiation angle, load, and mechanism. The results show that multi-crack always initiates in Mode Ⅰ and the vertical spacing is better not to be times of half crack-length for crack-arrest, which is in good agreement with test results of the red-sandstone cube specimens with three parallel cracks under uniaxial compression. This can prove the validity of the multi-crack initiation criterion.

Writing as a Supplement： Jacques Derrida＇s Deconstructive Reading of Rousseau＇s Confessions

The present study constitutes a critical appraisal of the deconstructive reading of Rousseau＇s Confessions that Derrida undertakes in the second part of Of Grammatology. In this examination, the author will first list some of the significations into which Derrida disperses （forced, as he asserts himself, by an ＂inassimilable residue＂ in the text itself） the meaning that he has already construed as apparently simple during the first moment of deconstructive reading （i.e., ＂the doubling commentary＂）; the author will then go on to enquire into the operations which enable Derrida to arrive at these self-conflicting significations. The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate that it is not language alone that disables the philosophy of Rousseau and enables the philosophy of Derrida. When Derrida attempts to support his philosophy through an analysis of Rousseau＇s theory of language and the alleged contradictions in Rousseau＇s texts, he misinterprets basic tenets of these texts in order to make them conform to the presuppositions of the deconstructive approach. The ＂reversal＂ and ＂displacement＂ of metaphysical conceptuality in the text of the Confessions is made possible after the text has had meanings transposed into it from a plurality of other texts. Derrida attributes to the text significations he discovers by construing, explicating and over-reading passages that occur elsewhere in Rousseau＇s total oeuvre （especially in the Essay on the Origin of Languages）.

A new discriminative sparse parameter classifier with iterative removal for face recognition

Face recognition has been widely used and developed rapidly in recent years.The methods based on sparse representation have made great breakthroughs,and collaborative representation-based classification(CRC)is the typical representative.However,CRC cannot distinguish similar samples well,leading to a wrong classification easily.As an improved method based on CRC,the two-phase test sample sparse representation(TPTSSR)removes the samples that make little contribution to the representation of the testing sample.Nevertheless,only one removal is not sufficient,since some useless samples may still be retained,along with some useful samples maybe being removed randomly.In this work,a novel classifier,called discriminative sparse parameter(DSP)classifier with iterative removal,is proposed for face recognition.The proposed DSP classifier utilizes sparse parameter to measure the representation ability of training samples straight-forward.Moreover,to avoid some useful samples being removed randomly with only one removal,DSP classifier removes most uncorrelated samples gradually with iterations.Extensive experiments on different typical poses,expressions and noisy face datasets are conducted to assess the performance of the proposed DSP classifier.The experimental results demonstrate that DSP classifier achieves a better recognition rate than the well-known SRC,CRC,RRC,RCR,SRMVS,RFSR and TPTSSR classifiers for face recognition in various situations.

Cooperative DVB-SH Satellite Broadcasting Systems with Rotated Signal Constellations

In this paper,we study the advantages of cooperation in broadcasting systems from a geosynchronous earth orbit(GEO)satellite to mobile terminals(MTs),achieved through a terrestrial complementary ground station(CGS) with fixed installment,which acts as a relay.Moreover and in the context of the digital video broadcasting-satellite-to-handheld(DVB-SH) standard,the performance improvements offered by the rotated constellations method are investigated,where prior transmission,a phase rotation of the transmitted symbols by a fixed angle is applied followed by a random component interleaver.Turbo codes with soft decision decoding and appropriate random channel interleavers are also considered.We present analytical expressions for the bit log-likelihood ratios(LLRs)that are needed for soft decision decoding at the MT turbo decoder,while the code combining technique is adapted to improve the end-to-end(E2E) performance.Then,we obtain through extensive computer simulations the average bit error probability(ABEP) of quadrature phase-shift keying(QPSK) signals received over pure land-mobile satellite(LMS)and pure CGS links for coding rates 1/3 and6/7.Moreover,the optimal rotation angles are obtained for both links.E2 E ABEP results are then presented assuming cooperation between GEO and CGS,while the power allocation issue is investigated under fixed total transmission power.Our performance evaluation results show that by using the constellation rotation technique,a performance gain can be achieved for high coding rates.

Cultivation of College Students＇ Critical Thinking Ability Through the Reading-Discussion-Writing Approach

Critical thinking ability is the core skill of higher education. How to train the non-English major students＇ critical thinking ability in the English writing instruction plays an important role in the compound personnel training. In this paper, the reading-discussion-writing approach which guarantees the innovative construction of writing is proposed to train college students＇ critical thinking ability, and specific suggestions on the practice are articulated such as designing diversified listening and speaking lead-in activities to activate or supplement the relative notion and background knowledge, using variety of challenging reading-discussion-writing tasks, and conducting mutual evaluation, etc., to let students deeply understand the text through discussion and promote their language competence and writing ability as well as their reflective thinking ability.

Who＇s your neighbor？ Acoustic cues to individual identity in red squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus rattle calls

North American red squirrels Tamiasciurus hudsonicus often produce a loud territorial rattle call when conspecifics enter or invade a territory. Previous playback experiments suggest that the territorial rattle call may indicate an invader＇s identity as squirrels responded more intensely to calls played from strangers than to calls played from neighbors. This dear-enemy effect is well known in a variety of bird and mammal species and functions to reduce aggressive interactions between known neighbors. However, although previous experiments on red squirrels suggest some form of individual differentiation and thus recognition, detailed acoustic analysis of potential acoustic cues in rattle calls have not been conducted. If calls function to aid in conspecific identifi- cation in order to mitigate aggressive territorial interactions, we would expect that individual recognition cues would be acoustically represented. Our work provides a detailed analysis of acoustic cues to identity within rattle calls. A total of 225 calls across 32 in- dividual squirrels from Sheep River Provincial Park, Kananaskis, AB, Canada, were analyzed with discriminant function analysis for potential acoustic cues to individual identity. Initial analysis of all individuals revealed a reliable acoustic differentiation across individuals. A more detailed analysis of clusters of neighboring squirrels was performed and results again indicated a statistically significant likelihood that calls were assigned correctly to specific squirrels （55%-75% correctly assigned）; in other words squirrels have distinct voices that should allow for individual identification and discrimination by conspecifics [Current Zoology 58 （5）： 758-764, 2012].

Ridge-Forward Quadratic Discriminant Analysis in High-Dimensional Situations

Quadratic discriminant analysis is a classical and popular classification tool,but it fails to work in high-dimensional situations where the dimension p is larger than the sample size n.To address this issue,the authors propose a ridge-forward quadratic discriminant(RFQD) analysis method via screening relevant predictors in a successive manner to reduce misclassification rate.The authors use extended Bayesian information criterion to determine the final model and prove that RFQD is selection consistent.Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to examine its performance.

An Investigation on Chinese Elementary and Secondary School English Teachers' Perceptions on AWE as Formative Assessment Tools

The research is designed to examine current teaching practices and perceptions of elementary and secondary school language teachers so as to inform the design of a large-scale project on AWE （Automated Writing Evaluation） application in the Chinese classroom. The data indicated that teachers were confident in their computer use and understood formative assessment notions and their role in technology-enhanced teaching and learning. However, concerns were raised on the writing rubrics interpretation, the pedagogy on integrating AWE into teaching, and the suitability of the whole English software to Chinese learners. Solutions and suggestions were discussed. Sample lesson plans, pedagogy training and technical support were considered necessary for the participating teachers.

Developing Students’ Critical Thinking and Discourse Level Writing Skill Through Teachers’ Questions: A Sociocultural Approach

The present study adopts a quantitative design to explore the effects of pre-designed teachers' questions as the mediation tool to scaffold the development of students' critical thinking and their discourse level writing skills in English from a sociocultural perspective. The participants were 39 sophomores from two classes. The results showed that:(1) teachers' questions targeting specific critical thinking skill in the classroom and in after-class conferences, as well as in written homework feedback were effective;(2) students backslid a little while internalizing teachers' questions concerning critical thinking;(3) students improved reliably in terms of local and global coherence in their written production with the help of teachers' questions. The findings indicate that teachers' questions facilitate students' development of critical thinking and enhance their discourse level writing skill.