Searching for Stability

Lamin J. Sise was former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan＇s advisor and executive assistant for 10 years, resolving disputes around the world, The Gambian whose three decades at the UN took him to 87 countries and 66 heads of government talks to ChinAffica about the major issues in Africa today and China＇s role as a friend：

Searching for a Younger Generation of Tibetan Minstrels to Sing the King Gesar

As time goes by,the development of epic performance cul-ture naturally fol-lows that the old blind minstrels who once specialized in singing the oral epic King Gesar(which they had memorized by their memories)are gradually dying out.Therefore, sooner or later,live performance of the oral epic King Gesar seems doomed to disappear.But does the successive loss of elite minstrels, such as the departure of Zhaba, Tsewang Jigme,Atak,Khetsa Zhaba,

THREE PROBLEMS IN SEARCHING FOR A MOVING TARGET BETWEEN TWO SITES

Suppose that a moving target moves randomly between two sites and its movement is modeled by a homogeneous Markov chain. We consider three classical problems： （1） what kind of strategies are valid？ （2） what strategy is the optimal？ （3） what is the infimum of expected numbers of looks needed to detect the target？ Problem （3） is thoroughly solved, and some partial solutions to problems （1） and （2） are achieved.

Searching for a Target Whose Truncated Brownian Motion

This paper presents search model for a randomly moving target which follows truncated Brownian motion. The conditions that make the expected value of the first meeting time between the searcher and the target is finite are given. We show the existence of an optimal strategy which minimizes this first meeting time.

Euler Characteristic Scheme of Globally Searching for Flaws in Surface Modeling

This paper presents a new scheme of flaw searching in surface modeling based on Euler Characteristic. This scheme can be applied to surface construction or reconstruction in computer. It is referred to as Euler Accompanying Test (EAT) algorithm in this paper. Two propositions in algebraic topology are presented, which are the foundation of the EAT algorithm. As the modeling is the first step for rendering in the animation and visualization, or computer-aided design (CAD) in related applications, the flaws can bring some serious problems in the final image or product, such as an artificial sense in animation rendering or a mistaken product in industry. To verify the EAT progressive procedure, a three-dimensional (3D) stamp model is constructed. The modeling process is accompanied by the EAT procedure. The EAT scheme is verified as the flaws in the stamp model are found and modified.

Algebraic or Algorithmic: Searching for Optimal Solutions in Multi-Stage Supply Chain Models

In this paper we proposed an AMH Supply Chain model to obtain optimal solutions for Two-, Three- and Four-Stage for deterministic models. Besides deriving its algebraic solutions, a simple searching method is successfully applied in obtaining optimal total costs and its integer multipliers. Our model has shown promising results in comparison to Equal Cycle Time and other existing ones. The tests focused on obtaining optimal total annual costs and other related details of Two-, Three- and Four-Stage for deterministic models. The results are run under Visual Basic Programming platform using Intel? CoreTM2 Duo T6500 Processor.

Still searching for a cure

If you think that falling bank interestrates are paving the road to recovery forthe battered economies of Asia,think again.In China's Mainland and Hong Kong,rapidly falling prices have actually pushed upthe real cost of capital despite successive re-ductions in bank interest rates in the past fewmonths.The impact of lower rates is surpris-ingly limited in Thailand,simply

Searching for a Target Traveling between a Hiding Area and an Operating Area over Multiple Routes

We consider the problem of searching for a target that moves between a hiding area and an operating area over multiple fixed routes. The search is carried out with one or more cookie-cutter sensors, which can detect the target instantly once the target comes within the detection radius of the sensor. In the hiding area, the target is shielded from being detected. The residence times of the target, respectively, in the hiding area and in the operating area, are exponentially distributed. These dwell times are mathematically described by Markov transition rates. The decision of which route the target will take on each travel to and back from the operating area is governed by a probability distribution. We study the mathematical formulation of this search problem and analytically solve for the mean time to detection. Based on the mean time to capture, we evaluate the performance of placing the searcher(s) to monitor various travel route(s) or to scan the operating area. The optimal search design is the one that minimizes the mean time to detection. We find that in many situations the optimal search design is not the one suggested by the straightforward intuition. Our analytical results can provide operational guidances to homeland security, military, and law enforcement applications.

SEARCHING FOR THE XIA DYNASTY

“Did the Xia Dynasty actually exist?”This question has plagued archaeologists for decades.The Xia Dynasty(c.21st century-16th century BC)is often referenced in Chinese historical documents as the first hereditary dynasty.It is considered the first component of the Xia,Shang,and Zhou(c.11th century-256 BC)dynasties in ancient classic literature such as Shi Jing(The Book of Songs)from the pre-Qin period(prior to 221 BC)and Shi Ji(Historical Records),compiled during the Western Han Dynasty(206 BC-AD 24).However,in contrast to the Shang Dynasty(c.16th century-11th century BC),which left oracle bone inscriptions and Yin Ruins as evidence,the Xia Dynasty has not yet been fully recognized by academic circles due to a lack of internal evidence or written materials.

Semantic overlay network for searching taxonomy-based data sources

Distributed data sources which employ taxonomy hierarchy to describe the contents of their objects are considered, and a super-peer-based semantic overlay network （SSON） is proposed for sharing and searching their data objects. In SSON, peers are dynamically clustered into many semantic clusters based on the semantics of their data objects and organized in the semantic clusters into a semantic overlay network. Each semantic cluster consists of a super-peer and more peers, and is only responsible for answering queries in its semantic subspace. A query is first routed to the appropriate semantic clusters by an efficient searching algorithm, and then it is forwarded to the specific peers that hold the relevant data objects. Experimental results indicate that SSON has good scalability and achieves a competitive trade-off between search efficiency and costs.

Searching for the remains of subducted continental slabs

On the basis of oceanic geological and geophysical observations the global plate tectonics theory wasput forward in the late 1960s. It inherited the essence of mobilism of continental drift and sea-floorspreading, caused a revolution of earth sciences in the twentieth century. But plate tectonics cannotsatisfactorily explain the complicated geological phenomena of continents, it fails in elucidating

Searching for Top Squark at Hadron Colliders

In this talk we briefly summarise our recent study(hep-ph/0007165)on searching fortop squark at hadron colliders.The light top-squark(stop)if produced in hadron colliders in theform of the (?)(?) pair and decaying through the likely decay chain (?)→(?)+b followed

SEARCHING FOR SUPREMACY

When it comes to why people go online in China, it’s a tossup between news browsing and using search engines for most netizens. Almost 70 percent and 66 percent, respectively, according to statistics from the 17th China Internet Development Statistic Report released in January this year. In 2005, almost 98 million, making

Searching for Clues

Despite China's economy maintaining its electrifying annual growth, over 10 percent since 2003, the country has somehow successfully kept its inflation rate at relatively low levels. This growth pattern, which contradicts traditional theories in economics, is challenging many world-renowned economists to speculate on this phenomenon. Fan Gang, Director of the National Economic Research Institute under the China Reform Foundation, and Justin Yifu Lin, Director of the China Center for Economic Research of Peking University, gave their explanations for China's economic miracle at this April's Bo'ao Forum for Asia.

Searching for Truth

An exclusive interview with Lu Chuan,one of the most talented young Chinese directors,on his controversial film City of Life and Death

Searching for Shangri-La

A three-book travelogue series on west China by American writer Laurence J.Brahm has recently been published by the New World Press,a Beijing-based publishing house.The series,which includes Searching for Shangri- La-Off the Beaten Track in Western China,

SEARCHING FOR CLUES

Scientists are striving to overcome the difficulties in earthquake predictionAt 11:56 a.m. on July 4, those who were indoors in Beijing felt the earth shake like a boat in a mild storm. A few minutes later, they learned from radio. TV or the Internet that the epi- center of the magnitude 5.1 earthquake was in Wenan County, Hehei Province, 110

Compact Scanning Tunneling Microscope with Large Scale Searching Capability for Mmultidisciplinary Applications

We present the design and performance of a home-built scanning tunneling microscope （STM）, which is compact （66 mm tall and 25 mm in diameter）, yet equipped with a 3D atomic precision piezoelectric motor in which the Z coarse approach relies on a high simplic-ity friction-type walker （of our own invention） driven by an axially cut piezoelectric tube. The walker is vertically inserted in a piezoelectric scanner tube （PST） with its brim laying at on the PST end as the inertial slider （driven by the PST） for the XZ （sample plane） motion. The STM is designed to be capable of searching rare microscopic targets （defects, dopants, boundaries, nano-devices, etc.） in a macroscopic sample area （square millimeters） under extreme conditions （low temperatures, strong magnetic elds, etc.） in which it ts. It gives good atomic resolution images after scanning a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite sample in air at room temperature.

Emergency Local Searching Approach for Job Shop Scheduling

Existing methods of local search mostly focus on how to reach optimal solution.However,in some emergency situations,search time is the hard constraint for job shop scheduling problem while optimal solution is not necessary.In this situation,the existing method of local search is not fast enough.This paper presents an emergency local search(ELS) approach which can reach feasible and nearly optimal solution in limited search time.The ELS approach is desirable for the aforementioned emergency situations where search time is limited and a nearly optimal solution is sufficient,which consists of three phases.Firstly,in order to reach a feasible and nearly optimal solution,infeasible solutions are repaired and a repair technique named group repair is proposed.Secondly,in order to save time,the amount of local search moves need to be reduced and this is achieved by a quickly search method named critical path search(CPS).Finally,CPS sometimes stops at a solution far from the optimal one.In order to jump out the search dilemma of CPS,a jump technique based on critical part is used to improve CPS.Furthermore,the schedule system based on ELS has been developed and experiments based on this system completed on the computer of Intel Pentium(R) 2.93 GHz.The experimental result shows that the optimal solutions of small scale instances are reached in 2 s,and the nearly optimal solutions of large scale instances are reached in 4 s.The proposed ELS approach can stably reach nearly optimal solutions with manageable search time,and can be applied on some emergency situations.