2,359 research outputs found
Report on Chinese Heritage Culture and Language Learning
This is a report/update on the School of Education project creating a website in Chinese on traditional Chinese holidays. It also includes other learning resources all listed in Chinese.
This is a short report. Please check Supplemental or Related file(s) for the body of the short report
A Cased-Based Reasoning Decision Support System
Each bidding contractors estimates his likely costs of carrying out the work detailed in the project schedules and adds a percentage markup to form the bid value. The value of the markup crucially influences the chances of a bidder winning the contract. Clearly, a low markup value should increases the chance of winning but decrease the profit, whilst a high markup should increase the profit but decrease the chance of winning the contract. It is very difficult for contractors to decide a proper markup, which happens to produce a satisfactory balance between the probability of winning the contract and the profit generated as a result of winning the contract. This paper presents a case-based reasoning decision support system (CBR-DSS) that assists contractors in solving markup estimation problem. The CRR-DSS uses successful cases of previous completed projects to derive solution to new project markup estimation problem. The principle of the CBR-DSS is to analogy new project with previous projects. Key Words: Case-Based Reasoning, DSS, Bidding, Markup RĂ©sumĂ©: Chaque contracteur demandĂ© estime son coĂ»t dâapplication dâun travail dĂ©taillĂ© dans les horaires et ajoute un percentage de maquillage pour avoir lâoffre qui influence crucialement une Ă©ventuelle rĂ©ussite dâun contrat. Evidemment une petite valeur de maquillage doit augmenter les chances de gagner mais rĂ©duire le profit tandis que un grand maquillage doit augmenter le profit mais rĂ©duire les chances dâarriver Ă un contract. Il est trĂšs difficile pour les contracteurs de dĂ©cider une offre convenable, qui Ă©ventuellement produit une balance de satisfaction entre la probabilitĂ© dâachever le contrat et le profit considĂ©rĂ© comme une rĂ©ussite dâun contrat. Ce document prĂ©sente un systĂšme du support decision rationnel basĂ© sur les cas (CBR-DSS) qui permet aux contracteurs de sâengager dans la solution des problĂšmes estimĂ©s et demandĂ©s. Le CRR-DSS utilise des rĂ©ussites de programmes prĂ©-achĂ©vĂ©s qui servent Ă rĂ©soudre les problĂšmes dâestimation dans un nouveau programme. Le principe de CBR-DSS est trouver les solutions pour de nouveaux programmes par analogie ceux prĂ©-achĂ©vĂ©s. Mots clĂ©s: Raisonnement basĂ© sur les cas, DSS, offre, maquillage, acquisition Governmental
Novel proton conductors in the layered oxide material LixlAl0. 5Co0. 5O2
It is demonstrated that good proton conductors can be obtained in transition-element-rich layered intercalation materials such as LixAl0.5Co0.5O2. A power density of 173 mW cmâ2 is achieved at 525 °C with a thick electrolyte (0.79 mm thick). The ionic conductivity of nominal LiAl0.5Co0.5O2 is 0.1 S cmâ1 at 500 °C. This is the highest among known polycrystalline proton-conducting materials
Rashbon condensation in a Bose gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
We show that in a two-component Bose gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
(SOC) two atoms can form bound states (Rashbons) with any intra-species
scattering length. At zero center-of-mass momentum there are two degenerate
Rashbons due to time-reversal symmetry, but the degeneracy is lifted at finite
in-plane momentum with two different effective masses. A stable Rashbon
condensation can be created in a dilute system with weakly attractive
intra-species and repulsive inter-species interactions. The critical
temperature of Rashbon condensation is about six times smaller than the BEC
transition temperature of an ideal Bose gas. Due Rashba SOC, excitations in the
Rashbon condensation phase are anisotropic in momentum space.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, text and figures update
GeV Scale Asymmetric Dark Matter from Mirror Universe: Direct Detection and LHC Signatures
Mirror universe is a fundamental way to restore parity symmetry in weak
interactions. It naturally provides the lightest mirror nucleon as a unique
GeV-scale asymmetric dark matter particle candidate. We conjecture that the
mirror parity is respected by the fundamental interaction Lagrangian, and its
possible soft breaking arises only from non-interaction terms in the
gauge-singlet sector. We realize the spontaneous mirror parity violation by
minimizing the vacuum Higgs potential, and derive the corresponding Higgs
spectrum. We demonstrate that the common origin of CP violation in the visible
and mirror neutrino seesaws can generate the right amount of matter and mirror
dark matter via leptogenesis. We analyze the direct detections of GeV-scale
mirror dark matter by TEXONO and CDEX experiments. We further study the
predicted distinctive Higgs signatures at the LHC.Comment: 16pp. Plenary talk presented by HJH at the International Symposium on
Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics (CosPA2011). To appear in the conference
proceedings of IJMP. Minor refinement
Synthesis of ammonia directly from wet nitrogen using a redox stable La 0.75 Sr 0.25 Cr 0.5 Fe 0.5 O 3â ÎŽâCe 0.8 Gd 0.18 Ca 0.02 O 2â ÎŽ composite cathode
Ammonia was directly synthesised from wet nitrogen at an intermediate temperature (375â425 °C) based on the oxygen-ion conduction of the Ce0.8Gd0.18Ca0.02O2âÎŽâ((Li/Na/K)2CO3) composite electrolyte. A redox stable perovskite-based catalyst, La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Fe0.5O3âÎŽ (LSCrF), was synthesised via a combined EDTAâcitrate complexing solâgel process to be used as a component of the La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Fe0.5O3âÎŽâCe0.8Gd0.18Ca0.02O2âÎŽ composite cathode for ammonia synthesis. Ammonia formation was studied at 375, 400 and 425 °C and a maximum ammonia formation rate of 4.0 Ă 10â10 mol sâ1 cmâ2 with corresponding Faradaic efficiency of 3.87% was observed at 375 °C when the applied voltage was 1.4 V. This is much higher than 7.0 Ă 10â11 mol sâ1 cmâ2 at 1.4 V and 400 °C when Cr-free Sr-doped LaFeO3âÎŽ, La0.6Sr0.4FeO3âÎŽ was used as the catalyst for the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia, indicating LSCrF is potentially a better catalyst. Ammonia was successfully synthesised using a redox stable cathode with higher formation rates at reduced temperature. Introduction of Cr3+ ions at the B-site of doped LaFeO3 improves both the chemical stability and catalytic activity for ammonia synthesis
An International Comparison of Educational Research Review Mechanisms
This paper explores the current status of educational research review mechanisms, assessment and ethical mechanisms in the UK, USA, Germany, France and Australia, and assesses the merits and shortcomings of the mechanisms and ways in which to improve them in those countries. This exploration is based on the perspective of comparative education and the concept of the academic tribe of T. Becher to assess peer review mechanisms. The research results include, first, the peer review system that was gradually developed in the UK, USA, France and Germany in the 1950s, which became a common mechanism for academic gatekeeping of the quality of educational research. Second, to ensure academic excellence, peer reviewers are required to be fair, professional, and specialized in a variety of âprocedural justiceâ designs. Third, anonymous or not, peer review depends on the subcultures of different countries or academic communities. In the UK and USA, the process tends to be more transparent, and authors can suggest potential reviewers; however, this is not the case in Germany and France. Fourth, for the purpose of improving malpractice in terms of ethics and reliability in peer review, the professional qualifications of reviewers should be evaluated regularly. Finally, the outcome of the comparative study may be used as a reference for improvement of review mechanisms for educational research in Taiwan
Investigation of Perovskite Oxide SrCo <sub>0.8</sub>Cu <sub>0.1</sub>Nb <sub>0.1</sub>O <sub>3âÎŽ</sub> as a Cathode Material for Room Temperature Direct Ammonia Fuel Cells
Singleâphase perovskite oxide SrCo0.8Cu0.1Nb0.1O3âÎŽ was synthesized using a Pechini method. Xâray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated a cubic structure with a=3.8806(7)â
Ă
. The oxide material was combined with active carbon, forming a composite electrode to be used as the cathode in a room temperature ammonia fuel cell based on an anion membrane electrolyte and NiCu/C anode. An open circuit voltage (OCV) of 0.19â
V was observed with dilute 0.02âm (340â
ppm) ammonia solution as the fuel. The power density and OCV were improved upon the addition of 1âm NaOH to the fuel, suggesting that the addition of NaOH, which could be achieved through the introduction of alkaline waste to the fuel stream, could improve performance when wastewater is used as the fuel. It was found that the SrCo0.8Cu0.1Nb0.1O3âÎŽ cathode was converted from irregular shape into shuttleâshape during the fuel cell measurements. As the key catalysts for electrode materials for this fuel cell are all inexpensive, after further development, this could be a promising technology for removal of ammonia from wastewater
Assessing Postural Stability Via the Correlation Patterns of Vertical Ground Reaction Force Components
Background Many methods have been proposed to assess the stability of human postural balance by using a force plate. While most of these approaches characterize postural stability by extracting features from the trajectory of the center of pressure (COP), this work develops stability measures derived from components of the ground reaction force (GRF). Methods In comparison with previous GRF-based approaches that extract stability features from the GRF resultant force, this study proposes three feature sets derived from the correlation patterns among the vertical GRF (VGRF) components. The first and second feature sets quantitatively assess the strength and changing speed of the correlation patterns, respectively. The third feature set is used to quantify the stabilizing effect of the GRF coordination patterns on the COP. Results In addition to experimentally demonstrating the reliability of the proposed features, the efficacy of the proposed features has also been tested by using them to classify two age groups (18â24 and 65â73 years) in quiet standing. The experimental results show that the proposed features are considerably more sensitive to aging than one of the most effective conventional COP features and two recently proposed COM features. Conclusions By extracting information from the correlation patterns of the VGRF components, this study proposes three sets of features to assess human postural stability during quiet standing. As demonstrated by the experimental results, the proposed features are not only robust to inter-trial variability but also more accurate than the tested COP and COM features in classifying the older and younger age groups. An additional advantage of the proposed approach is that it reduces the force sensing requirement from 3D to 1D, substantially reducing the cost of the force plate measurement system
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