Homo-urbanicus and Human-centered Planning

Homo-urbanicus is a planning concept which treats a human being as a rational animal with distinct material,social and intellectual characteristics,and a human settlement as a space in which human beings seek and offer opportunities for connection.Human-centered planning is the application of classical Natural Law(balance between self-preservation and mutual preservation)to the matching of human needs and human settlements.

GLOBAL CONVERGENCE OF A CLASS OF OPTIMALLY CONDITIONED SSVM METHODS

This paper explores the convergence of a class of optimally conditioned self scaling variable metric (OCSSVM) methods for unconstrained optimization. We show that this class of methods with Wolfe line search are globally convergent for general convex functions.

Evaluation of the impacts of adaptive cruise control system on improving fuel efficiency of urban road traffic

The impact of the adaptive cruise control（ ACC）system on improving fuel efficiency is evaluated based on the vehicle-specific power. The intelligent driver model was first modified to simulate the ACC system and it was calibrated by using empirical traffic data. Then, a five-step procedure based on the vehicle-specific power was introduced to calculate fuel efficiency. Five scenarios with different ACC ratios were tested in simulation experiments, and sensitivity analyses of two key ACC factors affecting the perception-reaction time and time headway were also conducted. The simulation results indicate that all the scenarios with ACC vehicles have positive impacts on reducing fuel consumption. Furthermore, from the perspective of fuel efficiency, the extremely small value of the perception-reaction time of the ACC system is not necessary due to the fact that the value of 0.5 and 0.1 s can almost lead to the same reduction in fuel consumption. Finally, the designed time headway of the ACC system is also proposed to be large enough for fuel efficiency, although its small value can increase capacity. The findings of this study provide useful information for connected vehicles and autonomous vehicle manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency on roadways.

Analysis and Optimum Design of Differential Inductors Using Distributed Capacitance Model

A distributed capacitance model for monolithic inductors is developed to predict the equivalently parasitical capacitances of the inductor.The ratio of the self-resonant frequency (f SR) of the differential-driven symmetric inductor to the f SR of the single-ended driven inductor is firstly predicted and explained.Compared with a single-ended configuration,experimental data demonstrate that the differential inductor offers a 127% greater maximum quality factor and a broader range of operating frequencies.Two differential inductors with low parasitical capacitance are developed and validated.

Analysis of geophone properties effects for land seismic data

The properties of the seismic geophones are important factors for high-resolution seismic exploration and have a great influence on data quality. For this reason, we have tested three kinds of geophones currently used in several regions with different geological features： desert, saline-alkali farmland, and carbonate areas in mountainous regions in order to test their property indexes. Based on the geophone vibration equation and from the property index effects ofgeophone and the connection of the geophones on seismic data, we analyzed seismic data quality acquired inthe tested regions and suggest that suitable geophone property indexes, reasonable choice of geophone types, and the suitable geophone connection can enhance the signal/noise ratio of seismic data.

In vitro Dissolution and Pharmacokinetics in Beagle Dogs of a Self-Emulsifying Formulation of Tretinoin

Aim In vitro dissolution test and pharmacokinetics in beagle dogs wereconducted to assess the formulation of tretinoin in self-emulsifying systems. Methods Theconcentrations of tretinoin were determined by HPLC. A crossover study was performed in four fastingbeagle dogs with the formulation of self-emulsifying systems and commercial capsules. Results Theresults showed that the dissolution rate in 15 min of tretinoin in self-emulsifying systems washigher than 80% while that of the commercial capsules was lower than 5% . The area under the plasmaconcentration-time curve (AUC) of the self-emulsifying formulation was significantly higher andC_(max) was approximately two times greater than those of commercial capsule, respectively, Inaddition, the time taken to reach peak was shorter (2 h to 1.25 h) for self-emulsifying formulationof tretinoin. Conclusion The self-emulsifying drug delivery systems.can significantly increasetretinoin in vitro dissolution and in vivo absorption.

Travel time and alternative configurations analysis for automated storage/retrieval systems based on geometrical method

In order to evaluate the efficiency of the automated storage/retrieval system(AS/RS)accurately,and compare different layouts of the AS/RS using mean travel time,under randomized storage conditions,an exact,geometry-based analytical model is presented.The model can be used to compute the expected single-command and dual-command travel time for a storage/retrieval(S/R)machine which can travel simultaneously horizontally and vertically as it moves along a storage aisle.The rack may be either square in time or non square in time.Additionally,the alternative layouts of the AS/RS and travel-time models are examined.Comparing with setting the I/O point at the left-lower corner of the rack,setting the I/O point at any point at the vertical edge can help enhance the efficiency of the AS/RS.

The design of adaptive sigma-delta A/D converter

The signal to noise ratio （SNR） of conventional sigma delta analog to digital converter （∑△ADC） reduces with input signal strength. The existing concept of adaptive quantization is applied to the design of ∑△ADC to improve SNR with high dynamic range. An adaptive algorithm and its circuit implementation is proposed. Because of the error due to the circuit implementation, an error self-calibration circuit is also designed. Simulation results indicate that SNR can he nearly independent of the signal strength.

Extraction of Pumpkin Polysaccharide by Complex Enzyme Method and Its Antioxidant Research

[Objective] This paper aims to study a new method of extracting pumpkin polysaccharide from pumpkin. Single factor experiments were conducted to examine the effects of extracting time,temperature,the solid-liquid ratio and pH value on the extraction yield of polysaccharide from pumpkin. [Method] The best enzyme ratio and extraction conditions for complex enzymes extraction were determined through orthogonal tests. Scavenging ·OH and O-2 activities of pumpkin polysaccharides were also investigated by salicylic acid and improved self-oxidation of o-pheno methods respectively. [Results] The results showed that the biggest extraction yield of polysaccharide from pumpkin can be got when adding 1% cellulose enzyme,1.5% pectinase,1.0% papain and Na2HPO4-citric acid buffer solution (pH was 4.6),and oscillating for 30 min under water at 40 ℃ with the solid-liquid ratio of 1:30. In addition,pumpkin polysaccharides had a strong activity of eliminating ·OH,but very weak activity to scavenge O-2. [Conclusion] This study provided basic data for research and application of Pumpkin polysaccharide.

Conscious Entities in Superluminal Parallel Universe

Tachyons are theoretical superluminal particles, i.e., faster than light particles. The idea of existence of tachyons comes from Arnold Sommerfeld. Bilaniuk and Sudarshan （1969） published the article ＂Particles beyond the Light Barrier＂ in Physics Today magazine where they analyze the theoretical properties of tachyons. From the tachyon idea I have hypothesized the existence of a Superluminal Parallel Universe constituted by Superluminal Conscious Entities that, like the theoretical tachyons, only can exist at speeds greater than the speed of light. This hypothesis should be subject to scientific inquiry but also to philosophical speculation or spiritual imagination. Later I imagine that the Superluminal Parallel Universe is the Spiritual World thought by theologians and idealistic philosophers. I relate the Superluminal Conscious Entities with Spirits and the Superluminal Parallel Universe comprising infinity of Superluminal Conscious Entities with God, the Universal Spirit, thus being simultaneously Unity and Infinity given that superluminal speed implies non-local, instantaneous connections. I imagine that the material Universe might have emerged from that God, assuming that many Spirits could lose superluminality generating the two classes of substances of the Universe： the class of subluminal particles of matter and the class of luminal particles, like photons. I imagine a Soul as a quasi superluminal entity dropped from a Spirit to animate material entities. The substances of both Universes would have evolved in parallel, with life arising and evolving from the subluminal substance driven by companion Souls. Let＇s also imagine that the natural way of being of Spirits and free Souls is a state similar to conscious dreaming. In this imagination, we all, Souls, would have been a part of God and we all might be again. We all are makers of the Universe. We all might get connected with the Spirits in God to beg for and to receive inspiration.

A Hopfield Neural Network Algorithm for Automatic Name Placement for Point Feature

This paper presents a method of adding label to the map especially for the point feature. This method overcomes the shortcoming of traditional methods, e.g. Conflict\|Backtracking method. Its kernel algorithm use the hopfield neural network to find the best label position for point feature. The experimental results proves that this algorithm has good permanence and high speed.

Antioxidant power of phytochemicals from Psidium guajava leaf

Dried ground leaves of Psidium guajava L. (guava) were extracted by water and aqueous ethyl alcohol 50% (1:10) ratio, and the total phenolic content in the extracts was determined spectrophotometrically according to Folin- Ciocalteu’s phenol method and calculated as gallic acid equivalent (GAE). Remarkably high total phenolic content 575.3 ±15.5 and 511.6±6.2 mg of GAE/g of dried weight material (for ethanol guava leaf extracts and water guava leaf extracts, respectively) were obtained. The antioxidant activity of lyophilized extracts was determined at ambient temperature by means of a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydryzyl (DPPH˙) colorimetry with detection scheme at 515 nm. The activity was evalu- ated by the decrease in absorbance as the result of DPPH˙ color change from purple to yellow. The higher the sample concentration used, the stronger was the free radical-scavenging effect. The results obtained showed that ascorbic acid was a substantially more powerful antioxidant than the extracts from guava leaf. On the other hand, the commercial guava leaf extracts and ethanol guava leaf extracts showed almost the same antioxidant power whereas water guava leaf extracts showed lower antioxidant activity. The parameter EC50 and the time needed to reach the steady state to EC50 concentration ( TEC50 ) affected the antiradical capacity of the sample. The antioxidant efficiency (AE) has been shown to be a more ade- quate parameter for selecting antioxidants than the widely used EC50. This study revealed that guava leaf extracts comprise effective potential source of natural antioxidants.

Numerical comparison of coal spontaneous combustion danger influenced by different methane drainage patterns in gob area

The influence of gas drainage on float coal spontaneous combustion in the work face with ＂U＂ style ventilation was studied. Numerical simulation was used to compare the mutative law of steady flow and density field in the gob area under different drainage conditions by solving the equation set, including mass, momentum, and component transition. Consequently, the sequence of drainage effect and safety was obtained. The result manifests that the more effective the drainage pattern is, the easier float coal spontaneous combustion is caused due to air being guided into the depth of the gob area when the drainage position is arranged in the gas accumulation area. If the widened scope of oxidation zone exceeds the upper limit of the work face advancing speed, nitrogen injection should be applied to decrease the probability of spontaneous combustion. Then, the pipe laying drainage in the upper angle is most economical and safe compared with other drainage patterns when only the situation of gas accumulation is controlled in the upper angle. Finally, drainage pressure must not be too great. Otherwise the drainage density will decrease even if hazard is caused by back flow possibly happening in the return outlet when the drainage position is arranged near the work face.

An SNR-Adaptive Relaying Algorithm for Multi-Antenna Cooperative Networks

Multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) and cooperative communications have been attracted great attention for the improvements of communication capacity, power consumption, and transmission coverage. The conventional fixed relaying protocols, amplify-and-forward(AF) and decode-and-forward(DF), have their own advantages and disadvantages, i.e. AF performs better than DF for low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) region, while the reverse is true for high SNR region. Therefore, this paper proposes an SNR-adaptive forward(SAF) relaying scheme obtaining the advantages of both AF and DF. Furthermore, the proposed SAF does not need to switch between AF and DF when SNR changes. The main idea is to adaptively derive the soft information at the cooperative relay nodes based on the information of the received signal and the SNR. Besides, based on the theoretical analysis and the simulation results, it is affirmed that the proposed SAF achieves superior performance than both AF and DF for all SNRs. Moreover, the performance gain would be improved with the increasing number of parallel cooperative relay nodes.

A method to compress vibration signals using wavelet packet transformation combined with sub-band vector quantization

A novel compression method for mechanical vibrating signals,binding with sub-band vector quantization(SVQ) by wavelet packet transformation(WPT) and discrete cosine transformation(DCT) is proposed.Firstly,the vibrating signal is decomposed into sub-bands by WPT.Then DCT and adaptive bit allocation are done per sub-band and SVQ is performed in each sub-band.It is noted that,after DCT,we only need to code the first components whose numbers are determined by the bits allocated to that sub-band.Through an actual signal,our algorithm is proven to improve the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) of the reconstructed signal effectively,especially in the situation of lowrate transmission.

Same Plight, Different Struggle： A Comparison of Female Protagonists in Hamlet and ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂

Approaching from the perspective of feminist criticism, this paper compares the female protagonists in Shakespeare＇s well-known tragedy Hamlet and Gilman＇s short story ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂. While the first person narrator in ＂The Yellow Wallpaper＂ is a modem signifier of the archetypal Ophelia as the sacrificial lamb of the patriarchal oppression, the two differ in their manifestations of madness, which could be accounted for by their respective historical and social environment with women＇s awakening consciousness of self-identity

Complete Assignment and Benchmarking of an 8-Qubit System

In this paper, the assignment of acomplex 8-spin-half system （7,7-dichloro-6-oxo-2-tio-bicycle [3.2.0] heptane-4-carboxlic acid） using nuclear magnetic resonance （NMR） techniques is presented and the hamiltonian obtained, was used to demonstrate universal control. The system has 313C and 51H,in our work, we carried out traditional 1-D and 2-D experiments and also made use of coherent control together with simulation to get the full hamiltonian of this weakly coupled system. Spin-echo J-resolved 2-D experiments were used to obtain the heteronuclear and homonuclear coupling values; COSY45 experiments were used to obtain the signs of homonuclear coupling constants. The signs of heteronuclear coupling constants were obtained using the polarization transfer method. All the data obtained in the experiments were used in the simulation of the 1-D spectra and then optimized using the least square fitting method. After obtaining the full hamiltonian of the 8-spin system, we used it in QIP, prepared pseudopure states and implemented 1-qubit and 2-qubit gates on one of its 6-qubit subsystems.

A new damping ratio identification method based on pattern search

In order to improve the effectiveness of traditional time domain identification methods in identifying damping ratios, a new damping ratio identification method based on pattern search is proposed by fluctuating the reliable natural frequency obtained through traditional time domain identification methods by about 10% to build the boundary conditions, using all the initial identification results to establish the free decay response of the system, and using the pattern search method to correct the initial identification results with the residual sum of squares between the free decay response and the actually measured free-decay signal as the objective function. The proposed method deals with the actually measured free-decay signal with curve fitting and avoids enlarging the identified error caused by intermediate conversion, so it can effectively improve the identified accuracy of damping ratios. Simulations for a room-sized vibration isolation foundation show that the relative errors of analyzed three damping ratios are down to 1.05%, 1.51% and 3.7% by the proposed method from 8.42%, 5.85% and 8.5% by STD method when the noise level is 10%.

Analysis of 13Cr bloom solidification structure using CA-FE model

Solidification structure is critical in the control of the mechanical properties and quality during the continuous casting process. The thermo-physical properties of 13 Cr steel added some rare metals, such as Mo, V, Nb, are measured to better understand the solidification structure of 13 Cr bloom. A computational model using CA-FE(cellular automation-finite element) method coupled with heat transfer model is developed to describe the solidification structure in continuous casting process. It is found that the calculated solidification structure is in good agreement with the observed data. The influence of casting speed and superheat on the solidification structure of the bloom is studied in detail. In order to obtain more equiaxed crystal ratio and low degree of the segregation in the bloom, the optimized casting speed 0.6 m/min and superheat less than 25 °C are determined for the caster. Using the optimized manufacturing parameters, these samples are 60% with the equiaxed zone ratio of 8%–10% and below the degree of segregation 1.05.

Field Performance Analysis of Shoes Used in the Takraw Games in Malaysia

Using proper footwear is crucial to avoid pain, deformations and injuries on foot. For athletes, a pair of good shoes is vital for comfort and may add to performance improvement. The main objective of this study is to study the performance of some commonly used shoes in the takraw games by using experimental tests and thermal measurements. The momentum and kinetic energies that were generated by the takraw shoes were also measured. The methods used in this study included free fall test, impact force analysis and surface thermal assessment. From the outcomes of the experiments, it was found that the prototype FA shoe was better in absorption of momentum and impact force than the other shoes and also with lower surface temperature after the trial game. These outcomes suggested that it was more suitable to be worn by the takraw players for better performance. All the information obtained from this study are particularly useful for improvement on the current design oftakraw shoe.