The retrieval of structured design rationale for the re-use of design knowledge with an integrated representation

Design knowledge can be acquired from various sources and generally requires an integrated representation for its effective and efficient re-use. Though knowledge about products and processes can illustrate the solutions created (know-what) and the courses of actions (know-how) involved in their creation, the reasoning process (know-why) underlying the solutions and actions is still needed for an integrated representation of design knowledge. Design rationale is an effective way of capturing that missing part, since it records the issues addressed, the options considered, and the arguments used when specific design solutions are created and evaluated. Apart from the need for an integrated representation, effective retrieval methods are also of great importance for the re-use of design knowledge, as the knowledge involved in designing complex products can be huge. Developing methods for the retrieval of design rationale is very useful as part of the effective management of design knowledge, for the following reasons. Firstly, design engineers tend to want to consider issues and solutions before looking at solid models or process specifications in detail. Secondly, design rationale is mainly described using text, which often embodies much relevant design knowledge. Last but not least, design rationale is generally captured by identifying elements and their dependencies, i.e. in a structured way which opens the opportunity for going beyond simple keyword-based searching. In this paper, the management of design rationale for the re-use of design knowledge is presented. The retrieval of design rationale records in particular is discussed in detail. As evidenced in the development and evaluation, the methods proposed are useful for the re-use of design knowledge and can be generalised to be used for the retrieval of other kinds of structured design knowledge. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exploring key sustainable development themes through learning activities

Purpose: The paper examines how a number of key themes are introduced in the Masters programme in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge University through student centred activities. These themes include dealing with complexity, uncertainty, change, other disciplines, people, environmental limits, whole life costs, and trade-offs. Design/methodology/approach: The range of exercises and assignments designed to encourage students to test their own assumptions and abilities to develop competencies in these areas are analysed by mapping the key themes onto the formal activities which all students undertake throughout the core MPhil programme. The paper reviews the range of these activities that are designed to help support the formal delivery of the taught programme. These include residential field courses, role plays, change challenges, games, systems thinking, multi criteria decision making, awareness of literature from other disciplines and consultancy projects. An axial coding approach to the analysis of routine feedback questionnaires drawn from recent years has been used to identify how student’s own awareness develops. Also results of two surveys are presented which tests the students’ perceptions about whether or not the course is providing learning environments to develop awareness and skills in these areas. Findings: Students generally perform well against these tasks with a significant feature being the mutual support they give to each other in their learning. The paper concludes that for students from an engineering background it is an holistic approach to delivering a new way of thinking through a combination of lectures, class activities, assignments, interactions between class members, and access to material elsewhere in the University that enables participants to develop their skills in each of the key themes. Originality /value: The paper provides a reflection on different pedagogical approaches to exploring key sustainable themes and reports students own perceptions of the value of these kinds of activities. Experiences are shared of running a range of diverse learning activities within a professional practice Masters programme.

Statistics anxiety, state anxiety during an examination, and academic achievement.

BACKGROUND: A large proportion of students identify statistics courses as the most anxiety-inducing courses in their curriculum. Many students feel impaired by feelings of state anxiety in the examination and therefore probably show lower achievements. AIMS: The study investigates how statistics anxiety, attitudes (e.g., interest, mathematical self-concept) and trait anxiety, as a general disposition to anxiety, influence experiences of anxiety as well as achievement in an examination. SAMPLE: Participants were 284 undergraduate psychology students, 225 females and 59 males. METHODS: Two weeks prior to the examination, participants completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of the STARS, the STAI, self-concept in mathematics, and interest in statistics. At the beginning of the statistics examination, students assessed their present state anxiety by the KUSTA scale. After 25 min, all examination participants gave another assessment of their anxiety at that moment. Students' examination scores were recorded. Structural equation modelling techniques were used to test relationships between the variables in a multivariate context. RESULTS: Statistics anxiety was the only variable related to state anxiety in the examination. Via state anxiety experienced before and during the examination, statistics anxiety had a negative influence on achievement. However, statistics anxiety also had a direct positive influence on achievement. This result may be explained by students' motivational goals in the specific educational setting. CONCLUSIONS: The results provide insight into the relationship between students' attitudes, dispositions, experiences of anxiety in the examination, and academic achievement, and give recommendations to instructors on how to support students prior to and in the examination.

New approaches to materials education

A novel approach to the teaching of material to engineering students is outlined. It starts from the overview of the "world" of materials made possible by material property charts, and develops both an understanding of material properties and skills in selecting materials and processes to meet design specifications. It is supported by extensive computerbased methods and tools, and is well adapted both for elementary and for advanced courses. © 2003 by Granta Design Limited. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Robotics education: A case study in soft-bodied locomotion

Locomotion has been one of the frequently used case studies in hands-on curricula in robotics education. Students are usually instructed to construct their own wheeled or legged robots from modular robot kits. In the development process of a robot students tend to emphasize on the programming part and consequently, neglect the design of the robot's body. However, the morphology of a robot (i.e. its body shape and material properties) plays an important role especially in dynamic tasks such as locomotion. In this paper we introduce a case study of a tutorial on soft-robotics where students were encouraged to focus solely on the morphology of a robot to achieve stable and fast locomotion. The students should experience the influence material properties exert on the performance of a robot and consequently, extract design principles. This tutorial was held in the context of the 2012 Summer School on Soft Robotics at ETH Zurich, which was one of the world's first courses specialized in the emerging field. We describe the tutorial set-up, the used hardware and software, the students assessment criteria as well as the results. Based on the high creativity and diversity of the robots built by the students, we conclude that the concept of this tutorial has great potentials for both education and research. © 2013 IEEE.

On the representation of an inclined Gaussian beam

In most contemporary optics courses, Gaussian beams are demonstrated in the form of propagation along one coordinate axis. This is referred to as the conventional representation and is in fact a special form. In this paper, we derive the general representation of a Gaussian beam propagating obliquely to the coordinate axis, by performing a coordinate rotation transformation on the conventional representation. When doing so on the beam parameters, a restrictive condition has to be taken into account. Without this condition, the expressions for the beam parameters after the rotation are not consistent with the conventional ones.

退耕草地演替过程中的碳储量变化

退耕草地演替的研究对了解现有退耕草地的变化趋势有重要意义,也可以为退耕地的植被恢复提供科学依据。本研究采用以空间代替时间的方法,对处于不同演替时间阶段退耕草地的土壤碳储量以及植被的地上部分与根系生物碳储量变化进行了研究,结果表明,退耕草地演替过程中,地上部分生物碳储量呈阶梯式上升趋势,演替初期地上部分生物碳储量先降后升,并在演替的22~32年,保持相对平稳,之后在演替的40~60年,达到第2个相对平稳的阶段。根系生物碳储量也呈分阶段的阶梯式上升趋势,但第1个相对平稳的阶段出现在演替的第12~28年,在演替的第32~60年出现第2个相对平稳的阶段。退耕草地的土壤碳储量在退耕演替的初期下降,且在演替的第1~12年一直小于农地,在演替的第15年之后,土壤碳储量逐步上升。在0~150 cm的不同土层中,土壤有机碳含量以0~15 cm最高,在演替的1~12年,各土层有机碳含量均小于农地,之后在演替的第15~60年,各土层土壤有机碳含量均随演替时间的增加有所增加,且0~50 cm表层土壤有机碳含量在演替第34~60年迅速积累,增幅较大。在演替初期,草地地上部分生物碳储量、根系生物碳储量和土壤碳储量较演替第1年均表现为下降...

中国沙棘、俄罗斯沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘光合特性及影响因子

在陕北黄土丘陵沟壑区用LI-6400光合仪对中国沙棘、俄罗斯沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘光合特性及影响因子进行了测定。测定结果表明三者的光合速率、气孔导度、胞间CO2浓度、蒸腾速率日变化均为"双峰"曲线。中国沙棘光合"午休"现象较轻,日光合速率和午后光合速率、气孔导度、胞间CO2浓度、蒸腾速率极显著(p<0.01)高于俄罗斯沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘。中国沙棘光合作用最适气孔导度、大气CO2浓度、空气相对湿度比俄罗斯沙棘小,最适胞间CO2浓度、蒸腾速率、气温、光合有效辐射比俄罗斯沙棘高。中国沙棘在最适气孔导度、胞间CO2浓度、蒸腾速率和大气CO2浓度下的光合速率比俄罗斯沙棘高;在最适气温、空气相对湿度、光合有效辐射下的光合速率比俄罗斯沙棘低。俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘光合"午休"现象比中国沙棘强,比俄罗斯沙棘弱,午后光合速率与俄罗斯沙棘相近;俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘最适气孔导度、大气CO2浓度高于中国沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘,最适胞间CO2浓度低于中国沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘,最适蒸腾速率、气温、空气相对湿度、光合有效辐射居于中国沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘之间。俄罗斯沙棘×中国沙棘在最适气孔导度下的光合速率高于中国沙棘和俄罗斯沙棘;在最适胞间CO...

活性炭纤维(ACF)吸附法处理河流突发污染事故模拟研究

环境突发污染事故给人民生活、经济发展和生态环境造成重大影响，研究污染物泄漏造成河流突发污染事故的应急处理方法十分必要。本论文选取苯酚、苯胺和亚甲基蓝等典型污染物为实验对象，采用吸附容量大、密度与水接近的活性炭纤维(ACF)为吸附剂。在自制的河流模型中，研究了ACF以苯酚、苯胺和亚甲基蓝为典型污染物的吸附过程，考察了吸附剂投加量、污染物浓度、吸附剂比表面积、吸附剂投加方式、水流速度与水质等对吸附速率与吸附效果的影响。实验结果表明，ACF能以较快的速率吸附苯酚、苯胺和亚甲基蓝，吸附率都在95％以上； ACF投加量是影响吸附速率最重要的因素，当一次性投加ACF质量之比为 1:2:4时，吸附速率常数之比近似为1:2:4；污染物浓度对吸附速率的影响显著，浓度较低时吸附速率较高。苯酚初始浓度为7mg·L-1时，经过86分钟的吸附，处理后的浓度可以达到地表水Ⅴ类水中挥发酚的限值要求(0.1mg·L-1)；在吸附11分钟左右追加适量的ACF，能够明显提高吸附速率；河水流速和河流中的天然有机物、浊度、河水硬度对ACF吸附都不产生显著影响，这说明ACF作为河流突发污染事故应急处理的吸附剂，有广泛的适应性。在实际河水中，ACF对苯酚的吸附过程与在模拟河水中相似，吸附效果显著。实验结果还表明，ACF对苯酚的吸附是放热反应，符合Freundlich模型和Langmuir模型。事故应急处理后，应该及时将吸附了污染物的ACF打捞上来，有利于进行后续处理。 Emergency environmental pollution accidents pose significant impacts on our living, economic development and ecological environment. The study on the approach of emergency control for the contingency caused by leakage of pollutants in rivers is very necessary. In the experiment, phenol, aniline and methylene blue were selected as representative pollutant and activated carbon fiber (ACF) was selected as adsorbent, which has strong adsorption capacity and similar density to water. In the self-made river model, the effects of ACF dosage, pollutant concentration, ACF surface area, ACF adding ways, water flow rate and water quality on adsorption courses were investigated. The experimental results showed that ACF could adsorb pollutant quickly and effectively. The ACF dosage was the most important factor that affected adsorption rate .When the ACF dosage rate was 1:2:4, the constants of adsorption rate was approximately 1:2:4. The effect of pollutant concentrations on the adsorption rate was notable. Faster adsorption rates were achieved at low pollutant concentrations. Phenol concentration reached the limits of volatile phenol in Category Ⅴ surface water (0.1 mg·L-1) after 86 minutes of adsorption with initial phenol concentration of 7 mg·L-1. After 11 minutes of adsorption, certain amount of ACF was added and the adsorption rate was improved significantly. River flow rate and water quality have little effect on the adsorption rate. The adsorption results obtained in actual river water were comparable with that in simulating river water. The results also showed that, ACF on the absorption of phenol is exothermic reaction, witch matched with the Freundlich model and the Langmuir model. After emergency treatment, the ACF absorbed pollutants should be promptly salvaged for follow-up treatment.

硬地面侵蚀产沙模拟试验研究

硬地面由于具有容重大、地表完全裸露、易受人为干扰等特性 ,因而其产沙特性有其自身的规律。在人工降雨实验模拟的基础上 ,对硬地面次降雨侵蚀产沙过程和影响硬地面侵蚀产沙的因素进行了初步探讨 ,为硬地面的侵蚀防治提供了科学依据

extending the boundary of spreadsheet programming: lessons learned from chinese governmental projects

ICSE

海洋微藻产生溶解有机物及东海溶解有机物三维荧光特征研究

本文通过胶州湾围隔实验、微藻培养实验研究了海洋微藻产生溶解有机物的三维荧光特性，并初步利用经验正交函数对三维荧光光谱图进行了主成分分析，通过东海取样研究了东海荧光溶解有机物的时空分布特征，并对荧光溶解有机物的来源进行了分析。得到了一些初步结论： 胶州湾围隔实验中不同营养盐培养结果表明浮游植物可产生类蛋白和类腐殖质荧光，类蛋白荧光峰由类酪氨酸(tyrosine-like)荧光峰和类色氨酸(tryptophan-like)荧光峰组成，主要位置为Exmax/Emmax=270nm/290~310nm，Exmax/Emmax= 270~290/320~350的荧光峰强度比较弱；在Exmax/Emmax=250~260/380~480nm(A峰)、Exmax/Emmax=310~320/380~420nm(C峰)和Exmax/Emmax=330~350/420~480nm(M峰)位置均出现零散的类腐殖质荧光峰，其中以A峰为主。类酪氨酸荧光强度明显高于类腐殖质荧光强度。浮游植物量降低时，类酪氨酸荧光强度与叶绿素a浓度呈明显的负相关。硅藻和甲藻产生的类酪氨酸和类色氨酸荧光强度之间具有较好的相关性，两者来源相似, 并且甲藻与硅藻相比能够产生更多的类蛋白荧光物质。不同环境下类腐殖质混合物的组分比例不同，甲藻生长环境下相对于硅藻具有较低的A:C比值。 在实验室培养中肋骨条藻（Skeletonema costatum）、塔玛亚历山大藻（Alexandrium tamarense）、微小亚历山大藻（Alexandrium mimutum）、锥状斯氏藻（Scrippsiella trochoidea）、东海原甲藻（Prorocentrum donghaiense）及海洋原甲藻（Prorocentrum micans）的实验结果表明，微藻在生长过程中产生出荧光溶解有机物，中肋骨条藻为代表的硅藻主要产生类腐殖质荧光物质，而甲藻在指数增长期主要产生类蛋白荧光物质。进入消亡期后类蛋白荧光和类腐殖质荧光强度迅速增大，原因可能是衰老、死亡藻细胞的破碎释放出大量的荧光有机物质所致，此外还有细菌对非荧光有机物进一步降解。塔玛亚历山大藻、微小亚历山大藻、东海原甲藻及海洋原甲藻的类蛋白荧光强度在消亡后期由于细菌降解或光降解等因素而降低。同属微藻产生的荧光物质相似，例如塔玛亚历山大藻与微小亚历山藻、东海原甲藻与海洋原甲藻，但具体荧光峰位置有所不同。利用经验正交函数能够对三维荧光光谱谱图进行主成份分析。 在利用三维荧光光谱法研究长江口海域台风前后不同站位荧光溶解有机物荧光特性及分布特征的结果表明，长江口海区主要的荧光溶解有机物荧光峰为T峰、S峰和A峰。风前和风后的类色氨酸分别来源于相似物质。风前，在表层浮游植物能够产生类蛋白荧光物质，而底层类蛋白荧光物质不受浮游植物的影响，长江冲淡水能够带来部分类蛋白荧光物质；表层的类腐殖质不受浮游植物的影响，而底层的浮游植物在降解过程中能够产生一部分类腐殖质，并且长江冲淡水对表层和底层的类腐殖质来源均有很大贡献。风后，表层的类色氨酸与叶绿素a浓度不呈相关性，而底层却呈正相关，另外表层和底层的类色氨酸均受到长江冲淡水的影响；表层和底层的类腐殖质与叶绿素a均没有相关性，但受陆源影响显著，长江冲淡水能带来类腐殖质。

Three dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission on matrix spectrum of dissolved organic substance in marine microalgaes growth process

The three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum was used to detect the changes in dissolved organic substances from the cultured Skeletonema costatum, Alexandrium tamarense, Alexandrium mimutum, Scrippsiella trochodea, Prorocentrum donghaiense and Prorocentrum micans. The result indicates that all of the microalgaes can produce FDOM in the growth courses. Diatom such as Skeletonema costatum can produce humic-like FDOM. However dinoflagellate can produce protein-like FDOM at exponential growth phase. When the algae grows into decadency phase, the intensity of humic-like and protein-like fluorescence augments rapidly, which may be due to a mass of FDOM realeased by the old or dead cell fragmentation and the degradation of bacteria by using non-FDOM. The fluorescent intensity of Alexandrium tamarense, Alexandrium mimutum, Prorocentrum donghaiense and Prorocentrum micans can reduce at anaphase of decadency phase because of the degradation of bacteria and light. The same genus of algae can produce similar FDOM, for example: Alexandrium tamarense, and Alexandrium mimutum, Prorocentrum donghaiense and Prorocentrum micans, but the positions of the fluorescence peaks are different.

Effects of hypoxia on contents of essential elements in pika and rat heart

The effects of hypoxia on the levels of essential macroelements and trace elements (K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, Fe, and Mn) in the heart muscles of Wistar rats and plateau pikas (Ochotona curzoniae) were studied by atomic absorption spectrometry. Unlike the rat, the plateau pika is tolerant to hypoxia. The levels of K, Na, and the trace element Mn were not significantly changed in rat or pika hearts after exposure to hypoxia for 1, 10, or 25 d at simulated altitudes of 5000 and 7000 m. Other minerals (Ca, Mg, Cu, Zn, and Fe) were significantly affected by hypoxia and the levels followed different time-courses under different hypoxic regimes in these two animals. There were marked differences between the rat and pika in myocardial accumulation of essential elements such as Ca, which was increased to high levels in the rat but not affected in the pika. The results suggest that hypoxia affects animal physiological mechanisms by regulating the levels of essential elements.

释光测年实验室的建立与沉积物释光测年技术研究

The main research projects reported in this paper are the establishment of a luminescence (OSL/TL) dating laboratory in The Institute of Geology and Geophysics, CAS, and studies on OSL dating technique and protocol of sediments from North China. These projects have been suggested in order to fit in with the needs of research developments in environmental changes, in particular the aridity and desertification in North China. A new luminescence dating laboratory in which there are a Rise TL/OSL-DA-15B/C reader with Sr-90 beta source, a set of Little More Tape 9022 alpha and beta irradiators, three set of Daybreak 583 intelligent alpha counters and sample preparation system has been set up in the Institute in June 2001. The courses of the establishment of a new laboratory involved a series of technical works, besides making a suitable choice of the equipment, as follows: installing and testing TL/OSL reader, calibrating the dose rate of the beta and alpha sources in the irradiators with the standard sources, testing and calibrating the count rates of the thick source alpha counting in the alpha counters with a standard sample, and then dating of the know age samples to check and examine the OSL/TL dating system. All data obtained from above calibrations and tests show that the established OSL/TL system, including the used equipment in it, can be used to determine age of the geological and archaeological samples with an error of equivalent dose (De) of less than 5%. The OSL dates of several sediment samples obtained from the system are good agreement with those from the OSL dating laboratory in Hong Kong University and ~(14)C dates within 1 - 2 standard deviations. The studies on OSL dating technique and protocol of sediment samples being in progress involve the De determinations with single aliquot regeneration (SAR) (Murray and Wintle, 2000) of the coarse grain quartz from sand dune samples and comparison of the De determinations obtained from SAR with those measured by using multiple aliquot regeneration of loess fine grains. The preliminary results from these research works are shown as follows. The very low natural equivalent dose (De) of about 0.012 - 0.03 Gy, corresponding age of less than 10 years, for BLSL (blue light stimulated luminescence) of the coarse grain quartz from modern sand dune samples in Horqin sand fields has been determined with both the SAR and multiple aliquot regeneration (MAR) techniques. This imply that the BLSL signal zeroing of the quartz could be reached before burying of the sand in Horqin sand fields. The De values and ages of the coarse grain quartz measured with SAR protocol are in good agreement with those obtained from multiple aliquot technique for the modern sand dune samples, but the errors of De from the MAR is greater than those from the SAR. This may imply that the higher precision of age determination for younger sand dune samples could be achieved with the SAR of coarse grain quartz. The MAR combining with "Australian Slide method" may be a perfect choice for De measurements of loess fine grain samples on the basis of analysis of De values obtained from the SAR and from the MAR. The former can be employed to obtain a reliable age estimate of loess sample as older as approximately SO ka BR There is a great difference between De determinations from the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR (Roberts and Wintle, 2001) and those from independent or expected estimates for the older samples. However, the age estimates obtained from the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR are mostly closed to the independent age determinations for the younger (age less than 10 ka) fine grain samples. It may be suggested that the (post-IR) OSL of the SAR protocol of the fine grain fraction would be a suitable choice to dating of the younger samples, but may be unsuitable for the older samples.