On the Conditions for the Characteristic Roots of a Matrix in a Sector

Davison and Ramesh expressed equivalently the condition for the characteristic roots of a real matrix to lie within a sector by the condition for a matrixof doubled order to be Hurwitzian (1). A further generalization of their result is given in this note.     

Students with disabilities in higher education: a biographical-narrative approach to the role of lecturers

This article presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? Findings pertain to a broader research project being developed by a multidisciplinary team employing a non-usual research methodology in higher education (HE) research and students with disabilities: biographical-narrative methodology. The general aim is to analyse – by listening to the students themselves – barriers and support identified as affecting access, academic performance and overall perception of the HE experience. The present paper analyses lecturer-centred data to focus specifically on one of the objectives of our research project: the role that lecturers play in the inclusive education of students with disabilities. Unlike other international research, this article explores the barriers and support differentiating between five fields of knowledge: health sciences, experimental sciences, social sciences (law and education), engineering and technology and humanities. Findings are organized in four topic areas: lecturer attitudes, practices in the classroom, curricular adaptations and faculty training. Key findings are discussed in the conclusions section, together with a discussion of contributions made by earlier studies.     

Estimate for the root-location of linear systems via the lyapunov matrix equation

It is well known that the Lyapunov matrix equation can be utilized to obtain the estimate for the transient behavior of linear constant systems. This paper shows that the equation gives information not only on the maximum real part of the characteristic roots of system matrix but also on other extremal values to these roots.     

New methods for compression of MP double array by compact management of suffixes

Minimal Prefix (MP) double array is an efficient data structure for a trie. However, its space efficiency is degraded by the non-compact management of suffixes. This paper presents three methods to compress the MP double array. The first two methods compress the MP double array by accommodating short suffixes inside the leaf nodes, and pruning leaf nodes corresponding to the end marker symbol. These methods achieve size reduction of up to 20%, making insertion and deletion faster at the same time while maintaining the retrieval time of O(1). The third method eliminates empty spaces in the array that holds suffixes, and improves the maximum size reduction further by about 5% at the cost of increased insertion time. Compared to a Ternary Search Tree, the key retrieval of the compressed MP double array is 50% faster and its size is 3–5 times smaller.     

A fast retrieving algorithm of hierarchical relationships using trie structures

Case structures are useful for natural language systems, such as word selection of machine translation systems, query understanding of natural language interfaces, meaning disambiguation of sentences and context analyses and so on. The case slot is generally constrained by hierarchical concepts because they are simple knowledge representations. With growing hierarchical structures, they are deeper and the number of concepts to be corresponded to one word increases. From these reasons, it takes a lot of cost to determine whether a concept for a given word is a sub-concept for concepting the case slot or not. This paper presents a faster method to determine the hierarchical relationships by using trie structures. The worst-case time complexity of determining relationships by the presented method could be remarkably improved for the one of linear (or sequential) searching, which depends on the number of concepts in the slot. From the simulation result, it is shown that the presented algorithm is 6 to 30 times faster than linear searching, while keeping the smaller size of tries.     

ASPEC: 亚洲科学论文摘录语料库

本文详细介绍了ASPEC（亚洲科学论文摘录语料库）。作为首个大规模的科学论文领域内的平行语料库,ASPEC 是由日- 中机器翻译项目于 2006 年至2010 年间利用科技促进专用协作基金构建起来的。它包含约300 万条平行语句的日- 英科学论文摘要语料库（ASPEC-JE）和约68万条平行语句的中- 日科学论文摘录语料库（ASPEC-JC）。ASPEC 被用作机器翻译评测研讨会WAT（亚洲翻译研讨会）的官方数据集。     

Contributions of upper limb rotations to racket velocity in table tennis backhands against topspin and backspin

The purpose of this study was to assess the contributions of racket arm joint rotations to the racket tip velocity at ball impact in table tennis topspin backhands against topspin and backspin using the method of Sprigings et al. (1994). Two cine cameras were used to determine three-dimensional motions of the racket arm and racket, and the contributions of the rotations for 11 male advanced table tennis players. The racket upward velocity at impact was significantly higher in the backhand against backspin than against topspin, while the forward velocity was not significantly different between the two types of backhands. The negative contribution of elbow extension to the upward velocity was significantly less against backspin than against topspin. The contribution of wrist dorsiflexion to the upward velocity was significantly greater against backspin than against topspin. The magnitudes of the angular velocities of elbow extension and wrist dorsiflexion at impact were both similar between the two types of backhands. Our results suggest that the differences in contributions of elbow extension and wrist dorsiflexion to the upward velocity were associated with the difference in upper limb configuration rather than in magnitudes of their angular velocities.     

Attitudes of healthcare students on gross anatomy laboratory sessions

At Chiba University, gross anatomy laboratory sessions (“laboratories”) are required for physical therapy students. Though most physical therapy schools require their students to participate in laboratories so that they will better understand the structure of the human body, few data exist on the value of these laboratories specifically for physical therapy students. We administered questionnaires to physical therapy undergraduate students both before and after they participated in laboratories. Questionnaire items focused on student attitudes toward the laboratories and on human life and dignity. Data from 83 students were analyzed, with the following results: (1) 74.7% of students had a positive attitude about attending laboratories before doing so; (2) with few exceptions, students' attitudes about upcoming laboratories grew more positive after experiencing the laboratory work (P < 0.001); (3) laboratories caused students to contemplate the topics of human life and dignity; and (4) 83.1% of students hoped to participate in laboratories at least four times. These results indicate that laboratories reinforce physical therapy students' positive attitudes about laboratory learning and promote student reflection on human life and dignity. This study provides support for the implementation of multiple laboratory sessions using cadavers into a uniform curriculum for physical therapy students in Japan. Anat Sci Educ 2: 273–279, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

《寇变纪》的世界--李世熊与明末清初福建省宁化县的地域社会

序言《康熙宁化县志》是现存唯一的清代福建省宁化县的地方志,它出自明末清初生活在该县的士人李世熊之手。该书第七卷《寇变志》记述了唐、宋、元时期发生的叛乱以及明正统14年的邓茂七叛乱,其中大部分涉及明朝后半期发生在该县的“寇”、“贼”的活动。笔者曾在1973年、1974年和1976年发表的《关于十七世纪的福建省宁化县黄通的抗租叛乱》(一)、(二)、(三)中,①介绍了《寇变志》中有关正德5年至崇祯12年间的内容,并全文翻译了其中从崇祯13年至康熙13年的有关内容。透过李世熊的记述,笔者探讨了领导“寇变”的黄通及其周围人们的活动、以及…