Integration of blockchains with management information systems

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), many Management Information Systems (MIS) integrate real-time data collection and use technologies such as big data, machine learning, and cloud computing, to foster a wide range of creative innovations, business improvements, and new business models and processes. However, the integration of blockchain with MIS offers the blockchain trilemma of security, decentralisation and scalability. MIS are usually Web 2.0 clientserver applications that include the front end web systems and back end databases; while blockchain systems are Web 3.0 decentralised applications. MIS are usually private systems that a single party controls and manages; while blockchain systems are usually public, and any party can join and participate. This paper clarifies the key concepts and illustrates with figures, the implementation of public, private and consortium blockchains on the Ethereum platform. Ultimately, the paper presents a framework for building a private blockchain system on the public Ethereum blockchain. Then,integrating the Web 2.0 client-server applications that are commonly used in MIS with Web 3.0 decentralised blockchain applications

Communicating science in the COVID-19 news in the UK during Omicron waves: exploring representations of nature of science with epistemic network analysis

News media plays a vital role in communicating scientific evidence to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Such communication is important for convincing the public to follow social distancing guidelines and to respond to health campaigns such as vaccination programmes. However, newspapers were criticised that they focus on the socio-political perspective of science, without explaining the nature of scientific works behind the government’s decisions. This paper examines the connections of the nature of science categories in the COVID-19 era by four local newspapers in the United Kingdom between November 2021 to February 2022. Nature of science refers to different aspects of how science works such as aims, values, methods and social institutions of science. Considering the news media may mediate public information and perception of scientific stories, it is relevant to ask how the various British newspapers covered aspects of science during the pandemic. In the period explored, Omicron variant was initially a variant of concern, and an increasing number of scientific evidence showed that the less severity of this variant might move the country from pandemic to endemic. We explored how news articles communicate public health information by addressing how science works during the period when Omicron variants surge. A novel discourse analysis approach, epistemic network analysis is used to characterise the frequency of connections of categories of the nature of science. The connection between political factors and the professional activities of scientists, as well as that with scientific practices are more apparent in left-populated and centralist outlets than in right-populated news outlets. Among four news outlets across the political spectrum, a left-populated newspaper, the Guardian, is not consistent in representing relations of different aspects of the nature of scientific works across different stages of the public health crisis. Inconsistency of addressing aspects of scientific works and a downplay of the cognitive-epistemic nature of scientific works likely lead to failure in trust and consumption of scientific knowledge by the public in the healthcare crisis

Behaviour of axially loaded piles

This project may be described in three parts. The first part mainly involves the evaluation of existing soil models under undrained conditions. The second part of the project is to evaluate the currently used methods for representation of the pile installation process. The third part of the work involves the study of the axially loaded pile problem, and particular interest is paid to the investigation of pile load displacement, shear transfer and load diffusion along the pile. Three different soil model have been used to represent the soil for this problem. Theoretical solutions have been compared with field test results. The modified Cam-clay model and the more advanced bounding surface model developed from classical plasticity theories, and the rate-type model founded upon hypoelasticity theory have been studied. Model predictions of these three models were compared and evaluated base on results of triaxial tests and direct simple shear tests under undrained conditions. Both the modified Cam-clay model and the rate-type model are closely related by the similarity of. their yield surfaces, but the rate type model requires only three soil parameters and provided reasonable agreement with test results on normally to heavily overconsolidated clay. The modified Cam-clay model is relatively restricted to the lightly overconsolidated clay. The sophisticated bounding surface model provides remarkable model prediction power to fit the test results, but numerous model parameters are required. The cylindrical cavity expansion approach and the simple pile method, both of which may be used to simulate the pile installation process have been investigated. The rate-type model has been choosen to represent the soil. The simple pile method attempts to include the tip effect due to pile advancement which has been ignored in the cylindrical cavity expansion approach. The simple pile method approximates the strain field around the pile by an ideal fluid, but it is found that this method results in unrealistic pile-soil interaction. The predicted excess pore pressures from both methods were compared with field test results. This indicated that the simple pile method provided better agreement with test results than did the cylindrical cavity expansion approach. An idealized one-dimensional pile model has been proposed. The modified Cam-clay model, bounding surface model and the rate-type model have all been used to simulated the soil response due to axial pile loading. Theoretical solutions were compared with three well documented pile test results. The pile tests were carried out in lightly to heavily overconsolidated clay deposits. The pile model predicted good agreement with test results, especially in regard to the pile load displacement response, shear transfer and load diffusion along the pile at low stress level

Field Measurement on a Slope Cutting With Tensile Inclusions

In a road widening project, tensile inclusions were used to stabilize some parts of cut slope works. The site condition and the construction of reinforced slope cutting are presented. A full scale field test on a reinforced cut slope was performed being incorporated with this road widening project. The field test consisted of a field loading test and a field excavation test. Details of the field test, field measurements and site observation are presented. Finite element analysis of the field test is performed. Based on the field measurements together with the analytical results, the reinforcement mechanism of a reinforced cut slope under a surcharge load and that under an effect of excavation are discussed

Drawing metro maps in concentric circles: A designer‐in‐the‐loop approach with visual examples

This article presents a proof-of-concept designer-in-the-loop schematic map drawing tool, based on the marriage of two approaches—manual and automated, which provides the technical interactivity of drawing tools between the user and the computer. We focus on concentric circle maps as opposed to the commonly used orthogonal mode representation, which is suggested by previous studies that it could promote better network learning. In comparison with existing methods, the proposed method is more compatible with the framework of effective map design from psychological and aesthetic perspectives, and a range of options can be provided in conjunction with users' preferences. We evaluated our approach on a set of iterations with case studies of Hong Kong metro with a group of three co-authors from the fields of geography, transport engineering, and education

Drive care: System for monitoring driver’s concentration and consciousness using consumer grade electonnencephalogram (EEG) headset 護駕: 利用消費級可裝載腦波監測儀實現實時監控駕駛者專注度系統

As people increasingly drive cars for both work and personal purposes, the dangers posed by drug driving, drink driving or sleep-deprived driving are growing threats to society. Highly dangerous driving behaviour and numerous traffic accidents occur because drivers are insufficiently conscious or inadequately focused while driving... 不論是為了工作還是個人需要，不少人都愛自行駕車，但藥後駕駛、醉酒駕駛、或駕駛前睡眠不足，往往容易對巿民的安全構成威脅。司機無法保持清醒或專注地駕駛而導致高危駕駛行為或交通意外，屢見不鮮... Award: Silver奬項: 銀

Transient Climate Response in Coupled Atmospheric–Ocean General Circulation Models

The equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) has a large uncertainty range among models participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) and has recently been presented as “inherently unpredictable.” One way to circumvent this problem is to consider the transient climate response (TCR). However, the TCR among AR4 models also differs by more than a factor of 2. The authors argue that the situation may not necessarily be so pessimistic, because much of the intermodel difference may be due to the fact that the models were run with their oceans at various stages of flux adjustment with their atmosphere. This is shown by comparing multimillennium-long runs of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies model, version E, coupled with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (GISS-EH) and the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4) with what were reported to AR4. The long model runs here reveal the range of variability (~30%) in their TCR within the same model with the same ECS. The commonly adopted remedy of subtracting the “climate drift” is ineffective and adds to the variability. The culprit is the natural variability of the control runs, which exists even at quasi equilibration. Fortunately, for simulations with multidecadal time horizon, robust solutions can be obtained by branching off thousand-year-long control runs that reach “quasi equilibration” using a new protocol, which takes advantage of the fact that forced solutions to radiative forcing forget their initial condition after 30–40 yr and instead depend mostly on the trajectory of the radiative forcing

Using concept map to enhance summarizing ability of paragraph and main idea of junior form secondary students = 利用概念圖教學提升初中學生綜合段旨及主旨的能力

This study aimed to explore if the use of concept map approach could enhance the ability of the comprehensive section of junior secondary school students. There are 26 F.1 students participate in the study. This study is an action research and there are pre-test and pro test-reading section for data analysis. During the study, students will have an experimental teaching between pre-test and post-test. The results show: concept map teaching method can improve the ability of the comprehensive section of junior secondary school students. Overall student achievement in reading (especially about summarizing the main idea) has improved significantly after the test. This study also found that the significant of the result is particularly high for middle and low ability students than that of high ability students. Based on the above findings, researchers suggest the following ways for further studies. It is suggested that teachers canuse drama pedagogy and other writing pedagogy to activate our students’ problem-solving skills so that they can utilize the concept map more fluently. Meanwhile, teachers should be aware of the passage type which storyline can be summarized in problem-solving map. Eventually, teachers could also use peer evaluation to encourage students to reflect the story meaning interactively.published_or_final_versionEducationBachelorBachelor of Education in Language Educatio