Sound Balance Research Articles

NIS, WTO, SPS, WIR*: Does the WTO Substanstially Limit the Ability of Countries to Regulate Harmful Non-Indigenous Species?

Do global trade regimes restrict countries from passing and enforcing their own strong domestic environmental standards? This Essay attempts to reign in the issue of the relationship between trade and domestic environmental policy by focusing on one test case - the new area of regulating harmful invasive species - and then asking whether current global trade regimes, and in particular the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement, would prevent the United States (or any other country) from implementing protective new laws and policies to address this new environmental concern. Part I sketches the new recognition in the United States (mirrored by increased awareness elsewhere) of the substantial environmental and economic threats posed by the introduction and spread of harmful non-indigenous species, and summarizes current proposals to develop new policies in this area. The proposals include recommendations that would impose additional barriers to trade. Part II focuses on the part of the WTO Agreement most likely to be the basis for challenging such a policy. The third part considers whether the WTO regime encourages a sound balance between encouraging rational policymaking and respecting national policies and preferences with regard to the environment (and to the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens more generally). The final Part asks whether challenges to an aggressive U.S. invasive species policy would be likely to succeed, and notes important structural limitations on the WTO process that make the answer hard to predict.

Hybrid identification in fuzzy-neural networks

This paper introduces an identification method for nonlinear models in the form of Fuzzy-Neural Networks (FNN). In this model, we use two forms of the fuzzy inference methods—a simplified and linear fuzzy inference, and exploit a standard Error Back Propagation learning algorithm. The FNN modeling and identification environment realizes parameter identification through a synergistic usage of clustering techniques, genetic optimization and a complex search method. We use a Hard C-Means (HCM) clustering algorithm to determine initial apexes of the membership functions of the information granules used in this fuzzy model. The parameters such as apexes of membership functions, learning rates, and momentum coefficients are then adjusted using hybrid algorithm. The proposed hybrid identification algorithm is carried out by combining both genetic optimization (genetic algorithm, GA) and the improved complex method. An aggregate objective function (performance index) with a weighting factor is introduced to achieve a sound balance between approximation and generalization of the model. According to the selection and adjustment of the weighting factor of this objective function, we reveal how to design a model with sound approximation and generalization abilities. The proposed model is experimented with using several time series data (gas furnace, sewage treatment process and NO x emission process data of gas turbine power plant).

Implicit rule-based fuzzy-neural networks using the identification algorithm of GA hybrid scheme based on information granulation

This paper proposes an identification method for nonlinear models realized in the form of implicit rule-based fuzzy-neural networks (FNN). The design of the model dwells on the technologies of computational intelligence (CI), namely fuzzy sets, neural networks, and genetic algorithm. The FNN modeling and identification environment realizes parameter estimation through a synergistic usage of clustering techniques, genetic optimization and a complex search method. An HCM (Hard C-Means) clustering algorithm helps determine an initial location (parameters) of the membership functions of the information granules to be used in this fuzzy model. The parameters such as apexes of membership functions, learning rates, and momentum coefficients are then adjusted using the optimization algorithm of a GA hybrid scheme. The proposed GA hybrid scheme combines GA with the improved complex method to guarantee both global optimization and local convergence. An aggregate objective function (performance index) is used in the model design in order to achieve a sound balance between its approximation and generalization abilities. The proposed type of the model is experimented with several time series data (gas furnace, sewage treatment process, and NO x emission process data of gas turbine power plant).

Binaural speech recognition and the Stenger effect.

The present investigation examined the effects of systematically altering the balance between speech presentation levels to the 2 ears of 12 listeners with bilateral asymmetrical sensorineural hearing impairments. Speech-recognition scores for /VCV/ speech stimuli were obtained from each participant in quiet for 9 conditions ranging from monaural poorer ear only to monaural better ear only, with 7 intermediate conditions in which the sound balance between ears was varied in 5-dB steps. High-pass spectral shaping was provided to the poorer ear, and unshaped amplification was provided to the better ear. The results suggested that, as a group, varying the sound level in the better ear within -20 to +10 dB of the centered position did not significantly change the speech recognition for these participants. No evidence of binaural interference was obtained. Findings also showed that in binaural listening situations, the Stenger effect has little influence upon speech-recognition scores. Even when the listeners were unaware of speech being presented to the better ear, their speech-recognition score reflected the better ear's abilities.

Identification of fuzzy systems by means of an auto-tuning algorithm and its application to nonlinear systems

The study concerns a design procedure of rule-based systems. The proposed rule-based fuzzy modeling implements system structure and parameter identification in the efficient form of “IF …, THEN …” statements, and exploits the theory of system optimization and fuzzy implication rules. Two types of methods for rule-based fuzzy modeling are studied. This classification concerns the form of the conclusion part of the rules that can be either constant or formed by some linear functions. Both triangular and Gaussian-like membership function are studied. The optimization hinges on an auto-tuning algorithm that covers a modified constrained optimization method known as a complex method. The study introduces a weighted performance index (objective function) that helps achieve a sound balance between the quality of results produced for the training and testing set. This methodology sheds light on the role and impact of different parameters of the model on its performance (in-particular, the mapping and predicting capabilities of the rule-based computing). The study is illustrated with the aid of several representative numerical examples.

THE ACOUSTICS OF A LARGE SPACE WITH A REPETITIVE PATTERN OF COUPLED ROOMS

The acoustics are discussed of a large building divided by arches and columns into 77 coupled “subspaces” or rooms. Two models of coupled rooms have been devised to predict acoustical characteristics such as the decay of sound energy density and reverberation time. The first is a general model which can be supplied to any system of coupled rooms. For each room of the 77 room system, the sound energy balance equation has been derived. The initial value problem, formulated by the system of 77 sound energy balance equations and initial steady state conditions, has been reduced to the eigenvalue problem, which has been solved numerically. The numerical results give fair agreement with the experimental results. The second model is approximate and could be derived because the particular building studied has a repetitive architectural pattern in which three repeatable rooms are identified. Consequently, with the approximate approach only three sound balance equations are required. The results obtained from the approximate model are in good agreement with results from the general model, as well as with the experimental results, for a substantial part of the space, except for the periphery.

Macro-engineering and global environmental issues

As more countries economically develop, their low costs allow them to become highly competitive, particularly in the area of manufacturing. Consequently, it is only by developing more advanced technologies that currently developed countries can maintain a sound balance of trade while trading freely with developing countries. As a neighbor of the rapidly developing countries of Southeast Asia, a region in which the environmental problems associated with economic and population growth are becoming acute, it is natural for Japan to be particularly eager to achieve rapid technological progress — perhaps more so than the US or Europe. In this context, the author discusses macro-engineering, a topic that includes such things as large scale infrastructure projects which are greatly needed in less-developed countries. The author also reviews civilization theory and considers modern culture and its effects on large-scale migrations, racial self-determination in the absence of a capable administration, and the prospects for sustainable growth on the limited Earth. The development of a macro-engineering diplomacy is proposed as a fundamental framework for solving global environmental problems, which might result in avoiding wasted efforts at national and regional levels.

Sludge Management and Disposal Practices of the County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles (USA)

The County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County (Districts) operate a network of six wastewater treatment plants called the Joint Outfall System (JOS) which treat a wastewater flow of approximately 22.3 m3/s (510 mgd). Centralized sludge processing for the JOS is performed at the largest plant in the system, the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant (JWPCP). Sludge is anaerobically digested, dewatered in scroll centrifuges, and either composted and sold to a private company which produces bagged soil amendment products or codisposed with refuse at a site which recovers energy from landfill gas with a 46 net megawatt steam turbine power plant. Future sludge handling will include dehydration followed by incineration for most of the sludge now landfilled. JWPCP accomplishes an environmentally sound and cost effective balance of solids disposal to the air, land and water.

Stockhausen at La Scala: Semper idem sed non eodem modo

Long before my train pulled into Milan's cavernous, shabby Central Station, it had become evident that La Scala's world premiere production of Karlheinz Stockhausen's newest opera, Samstag aus Licht (Saturday from Light), was going to be a very different affair from that of Donnerstag (Thursday) in 1981. For one thing, the opera management had been very thorough in publicizing that Samstag would not be produced in the famous Teatro alla Scala itself-conveniently located in the center of the city, a leisurely two-minute stroll from the Cathedral Square. Instead, it would be given in the Palazzo dello Sport, a colossal sports arena with a capacity of fifteen thousand, built in 1975 in the sport suburb of San Siro, on the western outskirts of the metropolis. La Scala regularly uses the Palasport (as it is familiarly called) for productions unsuited to the Teatro, and Stockhausen had been making public declarations that old-fashioned theaters no longer suited the requirements of contemporary opera. In fact, the last scene of Samstag is written for performance around and through the middle of the audience space (awkward to arrange in a conventional opera house). The composer explained to me that he had originally intended that the audience would move from the Teatro to the nearby church of San Fedele for this scene, but that the director had talked him out of the idea. However, this was not the only reason for the move. From a very reliable source I learned that because of a fire traced to temporary wiring in the Turin opera house two years ago, the insurance companies will not allow the older theaters to run cables, such as those required for the mixer in the center of the hall from which Stockhausen regulates the sound balance, outside of the stage area proper. Since all four scenes had been previously performed in concert form-albeit scene 3 in what was billed as a preview, so that La Scala could still take credit for the prima essecuzione assoluta-their

MANAGING A RETURN TO FINANCIAL HEALTH

When Jim La Fleur took the helm at GTI, it was a company hovering on the edge of bankruptcy. By using the Altman Bankruptcy Predictor Model in an active way to set strategy, La Fleur was able to return the company to a sound balance sheet. This is a case report of a marriage of an academically developed model and a corporate strategy designed to manage a financial turnaround.

Geology and Geotechnical Engineering

Geotechnical engineering is concerned with all aspects of the sites upon which civil engineering works are to be carried out. Geology is that branch of science concerned with the constituents of the earth's crust, their arrangement and structure, and the natural forces which tend to modify them. Study of the geology of engineering sites would therefore appear to be the logical starting point for all geotechnical site studies. In many cases it is, but in all too many cases in the past geology has been neglected, and others in which geological studies have aided design and construction, sometimes with substantial monetary savings. A brief review of some leading features of geological studies are listed. A sound balance between field and laboratory geotechnical studies is always desirable. This does not appear to be reflected in current geotechnical literature, either in volume or periodical form.

A Last Look Round the English Theatre

It is with regret that I stop looking round for Drama Survey; and my regret is all the greater because in the last year our theatre has shown a heartening capacity for self-renewal. Its life outside London has become more vigorous; while the fate of the big old theatres that supplied mass entertainment before the mass media is being considered at government level, the new medium-sized civic theatres are mostly flourishing and producing much new work. The subsidized theatres are doing this too: and while one may not always feel that they achieve a sound balance of judgment between what has immediate entertainment value (and should be the commercial theatre's business) and what has more lasting significance, the mixture keeps their work full of life which flows also into their revivals. All these companies are also going outside their own buildings, to serve young people or to tour the rest of Britain. London has its proper share of small experimental houses, and so have some of the other cities, notably Edinburgh with the Traverse which has sparked off a number of other ventures. And as we shall see, experiment has not been entirely confined to them. It is several months since my last look, so many indeed that the program of the coming summer's Chichester Festival is already announced. It contains some outstandingly attractive items, most notably Margaret Leigh ton and John Clements (who has established a superlative standard as Director) as Antony and Cleopatra. There is also Maggie Smith in Pinero's The Magistrate and The Country Wife (bewitching casting!) and Topol in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. But it is not my business to detail coming delights to aspiring visitors, but to look back at last summer. This too was a program of distinction. Peter Ustinov appeared in a new play The Unknown Soldier and His Wife, which I found sadly repetitive and got bored with, though many did not share my disappointment. Thornton Wilder's The Skin of our Teeth was translated from Atlantic City to the nearby seaside resort of Brighton: it sounds a good idea, but fantasy must be based on the particular details of real life if it is to make a successful jump off the ground, and the Englishing of Wilder's dialogue robbed it of the necessary verisimilitude. It was a colorful romp, but Wilder's point got lost; and the device of presenting the play as if it were being made into a television film introduced a second set of interjections from actors and director which cut across Wilder's origi-