Information technology issues in China

In this chapter, we provide important information technology (IT) issues in China, such as organizational IT issues, technology issues, and individual issues. In the World IT Project survey, we recruited 310 IT workers in China. Most of the respondents were in their early career and worked full time in China's IT organizations. The findings show that the most important IT-related organizational issues are: IT reliability and efficiency, security and privacy, and IT strategic planning. Among technology issues, IT professionals identified the following issues as the top concerns: networks/telecommunications, big data systems, data mining, software as a service, and business intelligence/analytics. Most IT employees seem to be satisfied with their current jobs and felt a sense of accomplishment at work. Results further show that more than half of the IT workers would not change their jobs in the short term and felt secure in their current jobs. In addition, there were no significant work-life conflicts among the surveyed IT employees. © 2020 The Author(s)

Semi-Numerical Simulation of Reionization with Semi-Analytical Modeling of Galaxy Formation

In a semi-numerical model of reionization, the evolution of ionization fraction is simulated approximately by the ionizing photon to baryon ratio criterion. In this paper we incorporate a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation based on the Millennium II N-body simulation into the semi-numerical modeling of reionization. The semi-analytical model is used to predict the production of ionizing photons, then we use the semi-numerical method to model the reionization process. Such an approach allows more detailed modeling of the reionization, and also connects observations of galaxies at low and high redshifts to the reionization history. The galaxy formation model we use was designed to match the low-$z$ observations, and it also fits the high redshift luminosity function reasonably well, but its prediction on the star formation falls below the observed value, and we find that it also underpredicts the stellar ionizing photon production rate, hence the reionization can not be completed at $z \sim 6$ without taking into account some other potential sources of ionization photons. We also considered simple modifications of the model with more top heavy initial mass functions (IMF), with which the reionization can occur at earlier epochs. The incorporation of the semi-analytical model may also affect the topology of the HI regions during the EoR, and the neutral regions produced by our simulations with the semi-analytical model appeared less poriferous than the simple halo-based models.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, RAA accepte

International Students’ Perspective - Effective Practices and Strategies to Support Online Learning and Teaching

International students and their instructors had to pivot their courses from in-person sessions to virtual platforms, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Generally, Chinese international students have coped with more challenges than domestic students, in terms of language practice, academic performance, and life expectations. This practice-based paper drew from the learning experiences of a group of Chinese international students. Using the Community of Inquiry framework, we examined the online learning strategies and practices that were effective. More specifically, the tasks of peer-review and online poster presentation provided scaffolded experiences and opportunities to practice speaking, while leaving a record of comments for future reference. Additionally, these activities provided some relief from the stresses of the pandemic. The paper provides implications for post-secondary instructors who teach culturally and linguistically diverse students in open and online environments

Symbol: Generating Flexible Black-Box Optimizers through Symbolic Equation Learning

Recent Meta-learning for Black-Box Optimization (MetaBBO) methods harness neural networks to meta-learn configurations of traditional black-box optimizers. Despite their success, they are inevitably restricted by the limitations of predefined hand-crafted optimizers. In this paper, we present \textsc{Symbol}, a novel framework that promotes the automated discovery of black-box optimizers through symbolic equation learning. Specifically, we propose a Symbolic Equation Generator (SEG) that allows closed-form optimization rules to be dynamically generated for specific tasks and optimization steps. Within \textsc{Symbol}, we then develop three distinct strategies based on reinforcement learning, so as to meta-learn the SEG efficiently. Extensive experiments reveal that the optimizers generated by \textsc{Symbol} not only surpass the state-of-the-art BBO and MetaBBO baselines, but also exhibit exceptional zero-shot generalization abilities across entirely unseen tasks with different problem dimensions, population sizes, and optimization horizons. Furthermore, we conduct in-depth analyses of our \textsc{Symbol} framework and the optimization rules that it generates, underscoring its desirable flexibility and interpretability.Comment: Published as a conference paper at ICLR 202

Blood for the Goddess : Self-mutilation Rituals at Vajreshwari Mandir, Kangra

Several 17th century sources (European travel literature and Mughal historiography) record the practice of self-mutilation, and possibly ritual suicide, at the Hindu temple of Vajreśvarī (Kāngṛā, HP), an important place of pilgrimage related to the Śakti cult. Blood-spilling, symbolizing fertility, played a central role in these sacrifices, which were discontinued in the 18th century as they entered in conflict with the non-violent view of Hinduism supported by urban elites.Diversas fuentes literarias del siglo XVII (viajeros europeos e historiógrafos mogoles) registran la práctica de automutilaciones, y posiblemente suicidios rituales, en el templo hindú de Vajreśvarī (Kāngṛā, HP), un importante centro de peregrinación asociado al culto de Śakti. El derramamiento de sangre, símbolo de fertilidad, constituía la parte central de estos sacrificios, los cuales dejaron de realizarse en el siglo XVIII al entrar en conflicto con la visión no violenta del hinduismo promovida por las elites urbanas