Museums and scientific material culture at the University of Toronto

Since its foundation in the mid-nineteenth century, the University of Toronto has accumulated a substantial number of historically-significant scientific objects. As Canada’s largest research university, much of this material is of national significance. Despite numerous attempts since the late 1970s to establish a universal policy for the preservation and safeguarding of scientific apparatus, the survival of Toronto’s scientific material heritage has depended partly on the initiatives of dedicated individuals, partly on luck.The following examination seeks a comprehensive history of the material culture of science at the University, focussing on scientific instrumentation and natural history collections. It examines the circumstances under which some material survives and traces efforts to develop a curated collection, concluding with some recent progress in acquiring storage and developing an online catalogue. It argues that early university science museums formed an important venue through which the University fulfilled its public function of studying the frontier and assisting the expansion of the colonies. The display and interpretation of scientific material culture had an important impact on the University’s early history.     

The silence of the norms: The missing historiography of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

History has been disparaged since the late 19th century for not conforming to norms of scientific explanation. Nonetheless, as a matter of fact a work of history upends the regnant philosophical conception of science in the second part of the 20th century. Yet despite its impact, Kuhn’s Structure has failed to motivate philosophers to ponder why works of history should be capable of exerting rational influence on an understanding of philosophy of science. But all this constitutes a great irony and a mystery. The mystery consists of the persistence of a complete lack of interest in efforts to theorize historical explanation. Fundamental questions regarding why an historical account could have any rational influence remain not merely unanswered, but unasked. The irony arises from the fact that analytic philosophy of history went into an eclipse where it remains until this day just around the time that the influence of Kuhn’s great work began to make itself felt. This paper highlights puzzles long ignored regarding the challenges a work of history managed to pose to the epistemic authority of science, and what this might imply generally for the place of philosophy of history vis-à-vis the problems of philosophy.     

Scientists and their cultural heritage: Knowledge,politics and ambivalent relationships

For many years, scientific heritage has received attention from multiple actors from different spheres of activity—archives, museums, scientific institutions. Beyond the heterogeneity revealed when examining the place of scientific heritage in different places, an authentic patrimonial configuration emerges and takes the form of a nebula of claims and of accomplishments that result, in some cases, in institutional and political recognition at the national level, in various country all around the world. At the international level, the creation of the international committee dedicated to University Museums and Collections (UMAC) within the International Council of Museums (ICOM) certainly testified from this raising interest in academic heritage and the existence of a specific community concern with it.This article presents numerous initiatives for the preservation of scientific heritage in France, with the goal of analysing the relationship scientists have with their heritage. We argue that scientific communities have a special relationship with heritage, which is characterized by a number of ambiguities. We show that such ambivalences allow analysis of identity, discipline, professional, and social issues operative in defining heritage and being redefined by heritage. To explore these dimensions, we have chosen to present three different case studies. The first traces the institutional uses of heritage by a scientific institution, the Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (CEA), through the transformation of the first French atomic reactor (ZOE) into a museum. The second example describes the initiatives of French astronomers from the mid-1990s to construct a national programme for the protection of astronomy heritage. Lastly, we recount the case of universities, with the example of the Université de Strasbourg.     

基于能力分析的空间对抗装备体系效能评估方法

首先研究了空间对抗的核心能力要素;然后研究了空间对抗装备体系的构成,即将核心能力要素细化为基本能力要素并映射到空间对抗装备子系统;最后构建由作战能力指标→核心能力指标及权重赋值→基本能力指标及权重赋值→单项效能指标及权重赋值组成的指标体系,并提出基于该指标体系的单项效能评价→系统综合评价→体系综合评价→作战效能评价→结果验证的综合评估途径.     

相控阵多址系统中通道间群时延不一致性分析

首先从数学公式分析了多用户相控阵通信系统的通道时延将会引起调制数据过零点出现偏移;再针对多通道时延不一致的情况,通过理论和仿真分析发现,如果空分处理前不进行通道间时延均衡而直接进行数字波束形成处理,会使得输出信号失真,系统误码性能恶化.     

国内外物联网研究现状及展望

物联网以互联网为基础,通过多种信息传感装置实现物物互联,是信息科技领域发展的必然趋势.本文就物联网的基本概念、技术体系、关键技术等方面对物联网进行介绍,并根据一些事实对近年来国内外物联网的发展现状进行阐述,提出现阶段物联网发展存在的问题,最后对其未来发展进行了展望.     

基于主成分回归分析的瓦斯含量预测

为了增加多元回归模型预测的精度,将主成分分析与多元回归分析相结合提出了PCA—MRA模型,并将该模型用于实际瓦斯含量预测。结果表明,PCA—MRA模型消除了输入变量之间的相关性,减少了输入变量值个数,提高了预测精度,便于实际推广和应用,为瓦斯含量预测提供一种新的途径。     

面向云-端融合的移动互联网应用运行平台

与传统的互联网应用相比,移动互联网应用尽管也运行于Web技术栈之上,但移动设备的便携性和多样性,带来了客户端设备计算能力相对有限、数据存储随需而变、显示屏幕大小不一、本地应用与Web应用和服务难以交互等技术挑战．为此,本文设计实现了一种面向云一端融合的移动互联网应用运行平台．首先,提出一种符合移动互联网应用体系结构的构件模型,将客户端应用划分为数据、计算、界面和服务四个部分;其次,设计了一种实现云一端资源融合的构件运行框架,支持应用数据的按需存储、计算任务的云端迁移、以及用户界面的动态切分;再次,设计了一种实现云一端服务融合的组装框架,支持客户端本地应用和传统Web应用的服务封装、和基于总线的服务即时组装;最后,基于Chrome浏览器实现了平台原型,支持基于HTML5和JavaScript的移动互联网应用,通过多个Web应用基准测试集和热点应用的实验,验证了平台的有效性和可行性．     

体域网中基于特征组合的步态行为识别

物联网(internet of things,IOT)拥有无处不在的识别、传感和通信能力,体域网(body area network,BAN)属于物联网中和人体相关的领域,其应用广泛,可以在日常生活中对人们进行监测及提供帮助.行走是许多日常活动的基本环节,因而步态分析能为体域网应用提供重要的生理行为信息.现有的步态分析已取得一定的研究成果,但仍存在一些问题,例如大多数步态特征提取是对加速度信号进行6重以上的变换,使得特征达到了45维以上,最后需要通过降维或优化来简化特征,较为复杂.本文设计一种灵活便捷的数据采集系统,并利用小波变换、傅里叶变换和四分位差提取出加速度信号中比较简单、低维度但能反应运动特征的步态参数,之后通过模式识别算法进行步态行为识别验证.实验结果表明该系统使用方便,特征提取方法简单实用,识别精确度为97%,EER(equal error rate)最小可到0.9%.     

基于△DOR信号的高精度VLBI技术

在嫦娥二号（CE-2）工程中,我国首次开展了X波段ADOR测量实验,获取了ADOR信号的VLBI时延数据,并用于精密定轨．本文给出了CE-2中ADOR信号的VLBI测量与数据处理方法,结合我国VLBI测量系统对时延数据进行了误差分析及精密定轨分析．结果表明：ADOR信号的VLBI时延精度优于0．5ns,比利用S波段信标的测量精度提高约一个数量级．本研究成果为后续的月球及深空探测高精度测定轨提供了重要的技术手段．