Emergence: A Systems Theory’s Challenge to Ethics

The paper reconstructs Niklas Luhmann’s diagnosis of the dysfunctional character of moral communication in the modern society by emphasizing the emergent character of today’s moral problems. In the systems-theoretic literature, emergence means the irreducibility of the properties of the whole to the characteristics of its parts. Two arguments have been advanced. First, the dysfunctional character of moral communication has been traced back to the emergent character of many moral problems. Moral communication has thus been shown to be not inherently dysfunctional, but rather needful of semantic forms that take account of the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems. Second, these properties highlight the moral aspect of the precariousness of system–environment relations as seen by Luhmann. As a moral problem, this precariousness can be resolved through greater sensitivity of social systems to their environment, social and natural alike. Accordingly, the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems can be captured by recasting the concept of responsibility as the individual-level or organizational-level projection of the environmental sensitivity of these systems.     

Bounding the inefficiency of the C-logit stochastic user equilibrium assignment

Compared with standard logit-based stochastic user equilibrium assignment model, the C-logit model describes route choice behavior in a more realistic way by considering the overlapping effect between routes. This paper investigates the inefficiency upper bounds of this model against the deterministic system optimum and the C-logit stochastic system optimum in terms of the total network travel time. It is found that the commonality factor of overlapping routes significantly affects the inefficiency bound, besides link congestion degree, total demand and the number of feasible routes. If the commonality factor is not considered, the efficiency loss resulting from selfishly stochastic travel behavior will be to large extent underestimated.     

铝制沐浴水热回收器的初步设计

对一种新型的铝制沐浴水热回收器进行初步设计。该沐浴水热回收器具有成本低,回收效率高等优点。介绍其工作原理,并以某三口之家为例,计算该热回收器的节能效益。结合沐浴水余热使用情况不合理的现状,讨论其发展前景。     

Cobalt doped titanate nanotubes: Synthesis and properties

Cobalt oxide doped titanate nanotubes are synthesized with a simple hydrothermal treatment of mixed Co_3O_4 and TiO_2 powders. The formed tubular nanostructure, chemical composition,and the elemental distribution are analyzed using TEM, BET, FTIR, XRD, and XPS. The electrocatalytic activity towards oxygen evolution reactions and photodegradation against Rhodamine B are investigated. It has been found out that the oxygen evolutions starts at 0.8 V and reaches 0.98 mA ·cm~(–1) at 1.4 V vs. SCE. For photodegradation of Rhodamine B, the concentration decreased to 24% after 1 h irradiation using the sample with a mass percentage of 5% cobalt. The results demonstrate that the cobalt oxide doped titanate nanotubes are good candidates as electrocatalysts and photocatalytic materials.     

Secure pairing with wearable devices by using ambient sound and light

Wearable devices usually work together with smart phones. To ensure only legitimate smart phones can read the data, they must conduct pairing to establish a shared key. Traditional pairing methods require that the pairing devices have a keyboard or screen for user interaction. However, due to the size limitation, keyboards or screens are hard to be installed in the wearable devices. To solve this problem, we propose a novel pairing method by using ambient sound and light. In this new scheme, any pairing request from smart phone will trigger wearable device vibration. Only after users press the confirm key on the device can the pairing process continues. Then pairing devices collect ambient sound and light at the predetermined time and establish a shared key by using the Diffie-Hellman protocol. To protect against potential man-in-the-middle attacks in the key establishment process, an improved interlock protocol with sound and light comparison is conducted to authenticate the key. If both the sound and light collected by the pairing devices are similar enough, the key is accepted. Otherwise, it is rejected. Compared with current context based pairing methods, our scheme does not impose strict synchronization on devices to collect ambient context data. Moreover, our scheme need not collect and exchange contextual information for multiple times to resist offline brute force attacks. The experimental results and security analysis prove the effectiveness of our scheme.     

本科教学中逻辑性课程《纳米材料》的主线设计探索

《纳米材料》课程主要讲解纳米材料的结构与性能之间关系的概念与理论,这种定位决定了纳米材料课应采用逻辑教学法.在这种方法下需找到课程逻辑起点,然后沿着起点设计出一条课程主线,建立课程理论体系,从而合理承接培养方案中的课程群.在《纳米材料》中,纳米结构就是逻辑起点,主线就是"结构与性能"的关系.故该门课程应按"结构和性能"这条主线展开.对现行纳米材料课程内容进行分析,大部分内容均可用主线串联起来.该方法为类似的逻辑性课程教学方法改革以及在课程章节内容之间建立逻辑关联提供借鉴.     

循环应力对储气库岩石微观结构及力学性质影响数值模拟

针对储气库循环注采过程中循环应力对储气库岩石产生疲劳损伤的问题。利用颗粒离散元法建立岩心真三轴数值模型,根据岩心室内试验标定数值模型参数,然后对数值模型进行多周期等幅值轴向循环应力加载,研究循环应力对储气库岩石微观结构及力学性质的影响。结果表明:循环应力加载过程中,模型内生成的无黏结接触数量和微裂缝数量逐渐增多,而生成位置受原始裂缝控制明显,模型孔隙度逐渐减小,且模型内无黏结接触数量、微裂缝数量和孔隙度的变化速率均呈递减趋势;相同应力水平下模型侧向应变和轴向应变均增大,但侧向应变占主导地位;模型弹性模量逐渐降低,而模型泊松比和损伤量逐渐增加,且模型弹性模量、泊松比和损伤量的变化速率均呈递减趋势。     

Two Innovative Coalition Formation Models for Dynamic Task Allocation in Disaster Rescues

This paper addresses the problem of multi-objective coalition formation for task allocation. In disaster rescue, due to the dynamics of environments, heterogeneity and complexity of tasks as well as limited available agents, it is hard for the single-objective and single (task)-to-single (agent) task allocation approaches to handle task allocation in such circumstances. To this end, two multi-objective coalition formation for task allocation models are proposed for disaster rescues in this paper. First, through coalition formation, the proposed models enable agents to cooperatively perform complex tasks that cannot be completed by single agent. In addition, through adjusting the weights of multiple task allocation objectives, the proposed models can employ the linear programming to generate more adaptive task allocation plans, which can satisfy different task allocation requirements in disaster rescue. Finally, through employing the multi-stage task allocation mechanism of the dynamic programming, the proposed models can handle the dynamics of tasks and agents in disaster environments. Experimental results indicate that the proposed models have good performance on coalition formation for task allocation in disaster environments, which can generate suitable task allocation plans according to various objectives of task allocation.     

肌肉自发振动过程中结合几率与化学反应速率的变化

定量分析肌球蛋白与肌动蛋白丝的结合几率及相关化学反应的速率常数,对于准确掌握肌肉收缩的内在机制具有非常重要的意义.以肌肉自发振动的实验结果为依据,从振动过程所满足的动力学方程出发,推导出结合几率与肌丝滑行速度及肌节长度之间的定量关系,并求得化学反应速率随肌肉收缩的速度变化而改变的数学规律.结果显示,结合几率的基准值由溶液中主要化学成分的浓度决定;结合几率的变化值与肌肉收缩的速度成正比,与肌节长度成反比;而化学反应速率随收缩速度按指数规律变化.上述结果与实验值基本一致.