EVOKE: A Value-Driven Concept Selection Method for Early System Design

The development of new technologically advanced products requires the contribution from a range of skills and disciplines, which are often difficult to find within a single company or organization. Requirements establishment practices in Systems Engineering (SE), while ensuring coordination of activities and tasks across the supply network, fall short when it comes to facilitate knowledge sharing and negotiation during early system design. Empirical observations show that when system-level requirements are not available or not mature enough, engineers dealing with the development of long lead-time sub-systems tend to target local optima, rather than opening up the design space. This phenomenon causes design teams to generate solutions that do not embody the best possible configuration for the overall system. The aim of this paper is to show how methodologies for value-driven design may address this issue, facilitating early stage design iterations and the resolution of early stage design trade-offs. The paper describes how such methodologies may help gathering and dispatching relevant knowledge about the ‘design intent’ of a system to the cross-functional engineering teams, so to facilitate a more concurrent process for requirement elicitation in SE. The paper also describes EVOKE (Early Value Oriented design exploration with KnowledgE maturity), a concept selection method that allows benchmarking design options at sub-system level on the base of value-related information communicated by the system integrators. The use of EVOKE is exemplified in an industrial case study related to the design of an aero-engine component. EVOKE’s ability to raise awareness on the value contribution of early stage design concepts in the SE process has been further verified with industrial practitioners in ad-hoc design episodes.     

The expansion of GPCR transactivation-dependent signalling to include serine/threonine kinase receptors represents a new cell signalling frontier

G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) signalling is mediated through transactivation-independent signalling pathways or the transactivation of protein tyrosine kinase receptors and the recently reported activation of the serine/threonine kinase receptors, most notably the transforming growth factor-β receptor family. Since the original observation of GPCR transactivation of protein tyrosine kinase receptors, there has been considerable work on the mechanism of transactivation and several pathways are prominent. These pathways include the “triple membrane bypass” pathway and the generation of reactive oxygen species. The recent recognition of GPCR transactivation of serine/threonine kinase receptors enormously broadens the GPCR signalling paradigm. It may be predicted that the transactivation of serine/threonine kinase receptors would have mechanistic similarities with transactivation of tyrosine kinase pathways; however, initial studies suggest that these two transactivation pathways are mechanistically distinct. Important questions are the relative importance of tyrosine and serine/threonine transactivation pathways, the contribution of transactivation to overall GPCR signalling, mechanisms of transactivation and the range of cell types in which this phenomenon occurs. The ultimate significance of transactivation-dependent signalling remains to be defined but it appears to be prominent and if so will represent a new cell signalling frontier.     

Reconsideration on Homogeneous Quadratic Riemann Boundary Value Problem

The homogeneous quadratic Riemann boundary value problem (1) with Hoelder continuous coefficients for the normal case was considered by the author in 1997. But the solutions obtained there are incomplete. Here its general method of solution is obtained.     

保密通信新介质--人工神经网络

根据人工神经网络的结构特点和信息传输与处理特征，提出了利用物理神经网络作为通信信道的观点．在分析了现有通信信道物理模型之后，具体讨论了作为通信信道的神经网络的可能拓朴结构、神经网络学习要点、允许传输信号的模式特征，研究了神经网络信道的传输延时、通信带宽及信噪比，分析了神经网络信道处理多媒体信号的计算潜力，并着重剖析了神经网络信道固有的保密通信特征．最后给出了一个具体的神经网络信道设计实例．     

高考走向的争鸣与思考

高考走向何方,成为人们热议的话题。有人主张废除高考,有人反对废除,主张改革;有人赞成统一高考,有人赞成高校单独招考……笔者认为高考要改不宜废,但改革要考虑国情,要遵循一定原则,要有比较稳定的思路,要有灵活应变的策略和科学的方法。     

Abrupt climate change：Debate or action

Global abrupt climate changes have been documented by various climate records, including ice cores, ocean sediment cores, lake sediment cores, cave deposits, loess deposits and pollen records. The climate system prefers to be in one of two stable states, i.e. interstadial or stadial conditions, but not in between. The transition between two states has an abrupt character. Abrupt climate changes are, in general, synchronous in the northern hemisphere and tropical regions. The timescale for abrupt climate changes can be as short as a decade. As the impacts may be potentially serious, we need to take actions such as reducing CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.     

The Optimal Solution of the Model with Physical and Human Capital Adjustment Costs

We prove that the model with physical and human capital adjustment costs has optimal solution when the production function is increasing return and the structure of vetor fields of the model changes substantially when the prodution function from decreasing return turns to increasing return. And it is shown that the economy is improved when the coefficients of adjustment costs become small.     

邓小平的社会经济可持续发展思想探析

本文阐述了邓小平关于发展阶段论、科教优先、全面发展的思想，在此基础上论证了邓小平在对生产力的研究之中，蕴含着生产力和可持续性发展的理念及两者之间的内在联系。回顾邓小平可持续发展思想，有助于社会主义社会的长治久安。     

Hamilton线图中的泛圈性

对于图Ｇ的边ｅ＝ｕｖ，定义ｄ（ｅ）－ｄ（ｕ）＋ｄ（ｖ），这里ｄ（ｕ）和ｄ（ｖ）分分别表示ｕ和ｖ的度，该文的主要结果是：对阶为ｎ（ｎ≥４０）的简单连通图Ｇ，如果对Ｇ中任意两条边距离为２的边ｅ１，ｅ２都有ｄ（ｅ１）＋ｄ（ｅ２）≥ｎ，并且线图Ｌ（Ｇ）是Ｈａｍｉｌｔｏｎ的，则Ｌ（Ｇ）是泛圈的，并且条件Ｌ（Ｇ）是Ｈａｍｉｌｔｏｎ是必要的。     

并行工程产品开发过程的建模方法学

在并行工程中，为了实现产品开发过程的集成、并行和最优化，首先要建立能够充分反映产品开发过程各方面信息的产品开发过程模型。通过对模型的仿真分析和优化，指导产品开发过程的实施。本文首先提出了并行工程产品开发过程模型是集成多视图模型，随后提出了采用集成多视图建模理论的并行工程产品开发过程建模、分析和管理的方法学框架