Developing a Modern Infrastructure for Open Distance Education in China: The Implementation of the NCEC Project

The NCEC project was a joint venture between China and Europe to deliver Internet-based distance education in China. The project was proposed in 1995, sponsored by the European Union since 1998, and finally completed in 2002. This paper shows how the NCEC project was planned and developed, and the importance of its role in the history of Internet application development in China

Affordance-Driven Next-Best-View Planning for Robotic Grasping

Grasping occluded objects in cluttered environments is an essential component in complex robotic manipulation tasks. In this paper, we introduce an AffordanCE-driven Next-Best-View planning policy (ACE-NBV) that tries to find a feasible grasp for target object via continuously observing scenes from new viewpoints. This policy is motivated by the observation that the grasp affordances of an occluded object can be better-measured under the view when the view-direction are the same as the grasp view. Specifically, our method leverages the paradigm of novel view imagery to predict the grasps affordances under previously unobserved view, and select next observation view based on the highest imagined grasp quality of the target object. The experimental results in simulation and on a real robot demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed affordance-driven next-best-view planning policy. Project page: https://sszxc.net/ace-nbv/.Comment: Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) 202

Diversity and selective sweep in the OsAMT1;1 genomic region of rice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ammonium is one of the major forms in which nitrogen is available for plant growth. <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>is a high-affinity ammonium transporter in rice (<it>Oryza sativa </it>L.), responsible for ammonium uptake at low nitrogen concentration. The expression pattern of the gene has been reported. However, variations in its nucleotides and the evolutionary pathway of its descent from wild progenitors are yet to be elucidated. In this study, nucleotide diversity of the gene <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>and the diversity pattern of seven gene fragments spanning a genomic region approximately 150 kb long surrounding the gene were surveyed by sequencing a panel of 216 rice accessions including both cultivated rice and wild relatives.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Nucleotide polymorphism (Pi) of <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>was as low as 0.00004 in cultivated rice (<it>Oryza sativa</it>), only 2.3% of that in the common wild rice (<it>O. rufipogon</it>). A single dominant haplotype was fixed at the locus in <it>O. sativa</it>. The test values for neutrality were significantly negative in the entire region stretching 5' upstream and 3' downstream of the gene in all accessions. The value of linkage disequilibrium remained high across a 100 kb genomic region around <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>in <it>O. sativa</it>, but fell rapidly in <it>O. rufipogon </it>on either side of the promoter of <it>OsAMT1;1</it>, demonstrating a strong natural selection within or nearby the ammonium transporter.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The severe reduction in nucleotide variation at <it>OsAMT1;1 </it>in rice was caused by a selective sweep around <it>OsAMT1;1</it>, which may reflect the nitrogen uptake system under strong selection by the paddy soil during the domestication of rice. Purifying selection also occurred before the wild rice diverged into its two subspecies, namely <it>indica </it>and <it>japonica</it>. These findings would provide useful insights into the processes of evolution and domestication of nitrogen uptake genes in rice.</p

A Boosting-based Framework for Self-similar and Non-linear

Abstract. Internet traffic prediction plays a fundamental role in network design, management, control, and optimization. The self-similar and non-linear nature of network traffic makes highly accurate prediction difficult. In this paper, a boosting-based framework is proposed for self-similar and non-linear traffic prediction by considering it as a classical regression problem. The framework is based on Ada-Boost on the whole. It adopts Principle Component Analysis as an optional step to take advantage of self-similar nature of traffic while avoiding the disadvantage of self-similarity. Feed-forward neural network is used as the basic regressor to capture the non-linear relationship within the traffic. Experimental results on real network traffic validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

How does humble leadership influence employee improvisation? A motivational perspective

Abstract In the era of variability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, organizations must improvise to deal with emergencies. Drawing on the proactive motivation model, we explored the connection between humble leadership and employees’ improvisation, and its mechanism and boundary conditions. The participants were sourced from various enterprises located in Shanghai, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Hainan, and other regions. Through a scenario-based simulation experiment (N = 91) and a questionnaire survey (N = 217), we derived five key findings. First, humble leadership positively affects employee improvisation. Employees’ positive emotions mediated the relationship, while both positive employee emotions and leader–member exchanges play a chain-mediating role. Moreover, power distance orientation negatively moderates the promotion effect. Finally, the indirect effect of humble leadership on improvisation via positive employee emotion is stronger for employees with low power distance orientations. Our study primarily focuses on individual-level improvisation, which enriches the knowledge of the connection between leadership style and improvised behaviors while also expanding upon the proactive motivation model framework. Additionally, practical insights are provided for promoting improvisation

Network-Training Collaboration in Europe and China (NCEC) - Issues and Promises

This paper presents Network-Training Collaboration in Europe and China (NCEC), a joint project between two European and four Chinese institutions aiming at designing and developing network-based course production, delivery and presentation systems for China. Sponsored by the European Union, the NCEC project is designated to provide on-line collaborative teaching and learning facilities in both Chinese and English on CERNET and ChinaNET, the two major China Internet networks. The paper addresses the major managerial and technical issues in the NCEC development processes and system operations of project management, related projects, Chinese information processing, course supply and tutoring, etc. The NCEC is expected to benefit both China and Europe in many ways

Anomaly Internet Network Traffic Detection by Kernel Principle Component Classifier

As a crucial issue in computer network security, anomaly detection is receiving more and more attention from both application and theoretical point of view. In this paper, a novel anomaly detection scheme is proposed. It can detect anomaly network traffic which has extreme large value on some original feature by the major component, or does not follow the correlation structure of normal traffic by the minor component. By introducing kernel trick, the nonlinearity of network traffic can be well addressed. To save the processing time, a simplified version is also proposed, where only major component is adopted. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme

Development and industrial application of catalyzer for low-temperature hydrogenation hydrolysis of Claus tail gas

With the implementation of more strict national environmental protection laws, energy conservation, emission reduction and clean production will present higher requirements for sulfur recovery tail gas processing techniques and catalyzers. As for Claus tail gas, conventional hydrogenation catalyzers are gradually being replaced by low-temperature hydrogenation catalyzers. This paper concentrates on the development of technologies for low-temperature hydrogenation hydrolysis catalyzers, preparation of such catalyzers and their industrial application. In view of the specific features of SO2 hydrogenation and organic sulfur hydrolysis during low-temperature hydrogenation, a new technical process involving joint application of hydrogenation catalyzers and hydrolysis catalyzers was proposed. In addition, low-temperature hydrogenation catalyzers and low-temperature hydrolysis catalyzers suitable for low-temperature conditions were developed. Joint application of these two kinds of catalyzers may reduce the inlet temperatures in the conventional hydrogenation reactors from 280 °C to 220 °C, at the same time, hydrogenation conversion rates of SO2 can be enhanced to over 99%. To further accelerate the hydrolysis rate of organic sulfur, the catalyzers for hydrolysis of low-temperature organic sulfur were developed. In lab tests, the volume ratio of the total sulfur content in tail gas can be as low as 131 × 10−6 when these two kinds of catalyzers were used in a proportion of 5:5 in volumes. Industrial application of these catalyzers was implemented in 17 sulfur recovery tail gas processing facilities of 15 companies. As a result, Sinopec Jinling Petrochemical Company had outstanding application performances with a tail gas discharging rate lower than 77.9 mg/m3 and a total sulfur recovery of 99.97%