Visualized Cognitive Knowledge Map Integration for P2P Networks

In the knowledge management field, knowledge map created under the client-server architecture has been widely used to direct the knowledge sharing process. Peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture has been practicable for file sharing, distributed computing, instant messaging, etc. by virtue of the increases of Internet bandwidth and personal computer capability. P2P architecture attracts researchers and practitioners to study knowledge sharing issues in its autonomy and self-organization characters. It calls for academic efforts to design knowledge management supporting system as that for client-server architecture may not be applicable. This study proposes a visualized cognitive knowledge map integration system to facilitate knowledge management on P2P networks. By using the SOM (Self-Organized Map)-like model, called Egocentric SOM (ESOM), the prototyping system can merge the external knowledge under a focal peer’s knowledge structure and present the cognitive knowledge map visually. In evaluating the proposed integration method, this study allocates abstracts of industrial research reports from an industrial technology research institute according to their corresponding author peers and generates individual cognitive knowledge maps. The results from the evaluation experiments reveal that ESOM is capable to retain individual peer’s knowledge structure while articulating with that of other peers in the cognitive knowledge network

Class numbers of multinorm-one tori

We present a formula for the class number of a multinorm one torus $T_{L/k}$ associated to any \'etale algebra $L$ over a global field $k$. This is deduced from a formula for analogues of invariants introduced by T.~Ono, which are interpreted as a generalization of Gauss genus theory. This paper includes the variants of Ono's invariant for arbitrary $S$-ideal class numbers and the narrow version, generalizing results of Katayama, Morishita, Sasaki and Ono.Comment: 21 pages; comments welcom

Economic order quantity under retailer partial trade credit in two-echelon supply chain

In this paper, we want to investigate the retailer’s inventory policy when the retailer maintains a powerful position in two-echelon supply chain. That is, we assumed that the retailer can obtain the full trade credit offered by the supplier yet the retailer just offers the partial trade credit to their customers under two-level trade credit situation. Then, we investigate the retailer’s inventory system as a cost minimization problem to determine the retailer’s optimal inventory policy in two-echelon supply chain. Finally, numerical examples are given to illustrate the results and to obtain managerial insights

A Study on Factors Affecting the Abstention of Drug Abuse in Private Rehabilitation Institutes in Taiwan — Operation Dawn Taiwan as an Example

The purpose of this study is to understand problems of the abstention of drug abuse in Taiwan. Comparing the model of Operation Dawn Taiwan with that of the government’s official rehabilitation institutes, this paper aims to identify advantages and disadvantages of the model in private institutes. The opinions of all inmates and tutors in Operation Dawn Taiwan, the biggest private rehabilitation institute in Taiwan, were collected via questionnaires. This study’s findings show that factors of relapse for a drug abuser after leaving rehabilitation institutes include: 1) the enticement from drug fellows; 2) incapability to resist the allure of drugs; 3) unemployment or hindrances to job-finding; 4) psychological depression; and 5) his/her desire for drugs. Inmates and tutors hold the same opinion on all models of the abstention of drug abuse. Specific suggestions of the abstention of drug abuse in Taiwan will also be discussed in this paper. Finally, inmates consider that career planning has significant positive correlations with abstention

Time-Domain Multi-modal Bone/air Conducted Speech Enhancement

Previous studies have proven that integrating video signals, as a complementary modality, can facilitate improved performance for speech enhancement (SE). However, video clips usually contain large amounts of data and pose a high cost in terms of computational resources and thus may complicate the SE system. As an alternative source, a bone-conducted speech signal has a moderate data size while manifesting speech-phoneme structures, and thus complements its air-conducted counterpart. In this study, we propose a novel multi-modal SE structure in the time domain that leverages bone- and air-conducted signals. In addition, we examine two ensemble-learning-based strategies, early fusion (EF) and late fusion (LF), to integrate the two types of speech signals, and adopt a deep learning-based fully convolutional network to conduct the enhancement. The experiment results on the Mandarin corpus indicate that this newly presented multi-modal (integrating bone- and air-conducted signals) SE structure significantly outperforms the single-source SE counterparts (with a bone- or air-conducted signal only) in various speech evaluation metrics. In addition, the adoption of an LF strategy other than an EF in this novel SE multi-modal structure achieves better results.Comment: multi-modal, bone/air-conducted signals, speech enhancement, fully convolutional networ

Feasibility of Pulverized Oyster Shell as a Cementing Material

This research intends to study the cementing potential of pulverized oyster shell, rich in calcium, when mixed with fly ash and soil. Cylindrical compacted soil and cubic lime specimens with different proportions of the shells and fly ash are made to study the strength variance. Soil, which is classified as CL in the USCS system, commercialized pulverized oyster shell, F-type fly ash, and lime are mixed in different weight percentages. Five sample groups are made to study the compressive strength of soil and lime specimens, respectively. The lime cubes are made with 0.45 W/B ratio and the cylindrical soils are compacted under the standard Procter compaction process with 20% moisture content. The results show that increment of shell quantity result to lower strength on both the soil and lime specimens. In a 56-day curing, the compressive strength of the lime cubes containing fly ash increases evidently while those carrying the shell get little progress in strength. The soil specimens containing fly ash gradually gain strength as curing proceeds. It suggests that mixtures of the shell and fly ash do not process any Pozzolanic reaction nor help to raise the unconfined strength of the compacted soil through the curing

Plasmonic Circular Nanostructure for Enhanced Light Absorption in Organic Solar Cells

This study attempts to enhance broadband absorption in advanced plasmonic circular nanostructures (PCN). Experimental results indicate that the concentric circular metallic gratings can enhance broadband optical absorption, due to the structure geometry and the excitation of surface plasmon mode. The interaction between plasmonic enhancement and the absorption characteristics of the organic materials (P3HT:PCBM and PEDOT:PSS) are also examined. According to those results, the organic material's overall optical absorption can be significantly enhanced by up to ~51% over that of a planar device. Additionally, organic materials are enhanced to a maximum of 65% for PCN grating pitch = 800 nm. As a result of the PCN's enhancement in optical absorption, incorporation of the PCN into P3HT:PCBM-based organic solar cells (OSCs) significantly improved the performance of the solar cells: short-circuit current increased from 10.125 to 12.249 and power conversion efficiency from 3.2% to 4.99%. Furthermore, optimizing the OSCs architectures further improves the performance of the absorption and PCE enhancement