Usage Problem Research Articles

Determining Levels of Prescriptivism in American English Usage Guides

Purpose: Prescriptivism–a concept concerned with “correctness in language use” (Tieken-Boon van Ostade, 2019, p. 8)–serves an important purpose when editors and other language professionals apply the findings from empirical linguistic studies to practical communication tasks (Oaks, 2021). Usage guides catalog usage rules, but they treat these rules with varying levels of prescriptivism. Therefore, advice varies across usage guides. This study empirically investigates levels of prescriptivism observed in usage guides. Method: Using a scale from 1 (minimally prescriptive) to 4 (maximally prescriptive), two raters coded the level of prescriptivism observed in entries for eight well-known usage problems (e.g., who/whom and lay/lie) from 11 current usage guides relating to American English. Based on the codes assigned to these entries, an overall prescriptivism index was calculated for each usage problem and usage guide. Results: A range in levels of prescriptivism was observed. Overall, the treatment of usage problems skewed high on the prescriptivism scale with six of the eight being treated as maximally prescriptive by at least two usage guides and six having mean indexes at or above the scale’s midpoint of 2.50. Similarly, seven of the 11 usage guides gave maximally prescriptive advice for at least one usage problem and eight had mean indexes at or above 2.50. While these findings indicate a bias toward prescriptive advice, a noteworthy amount of prescription-breaking advice was also observed. Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that usage guides vary considerably in their levels of prescriptivism; therefore, writers and editors must critically consider which advice to follow.

Modeling and I-NSGA-III-VLC Solution of Aircraft Equipment Rotation and Echelon Usage under Uncertainty

Optimizing the aircraft equipment usage scheme of different units according to their task intensity has great significance in improving aircraft reliability and health management. This paper studied the modeling and solving methods of the rotation and echelon usage problems of aircraft equipment measured by dual-life indexes, one of which cannot be controlled. In order to maximize the waste rate of the rotation quantity, echelon uniformity index, life matching index and life utilization index, a decision-making model of the equipment rotation and echelon usage problem under uncertainty was constructed, and an improved NSGA-III with a variable length chromosome was proposed. An improved segmented coding method and operators were proposed, and the repeated individual control mechanism was used to improve the population diversity. When the scale of the problem was large, this method could search a wider range in a short time and obtain more feasible solutions, which verified the feasibility of this method.

ENERGY ANALYSIS IN RESIDENTIAL BUILDING FOR INSULATION ROOF MATERIAL USING BUILDING INFORMATION MODELLING.

Energy efficient is becoming a significant subject to investigate within the Architecture Engineering and Construction (AEC), as a result of the expanding heating and energy usage problem. Lack of interoperability has been identified as a hurdle to increased efficiency in the AEC. In order to fulfil the expanding demands around the world, the energy analysis must be incorporated into the building's planning section. Predicting a building's energy use and establishing an energy-saving life and style are both required. To conduct an energy study of a G+3 residential structure, the article uses Autodesk (BIM) capabilities. The goals of this project are to find BIM energy analysis into calculating a building's energy consumption, as well as to conclude the life cycle cost and energy cost over time, in same building. This study's primary focus is on roof materials and alternatives accomplished with the use of Autodesk Revit software and Green Building Studio, a cloud-based energy analysis application.

Do Social Media Posts Influence Consumption Behavior towards Plastic Pollution?

The continuous generation of plastic wastes is one of the most serious environmental problems that we are facing. Information campaigns have been used to encourage people to reduce plastic consumption. Moreover, social media has become the most prevalent and influential form of communication in this current era. This study seeks to analyze the influence of social media on consumer behavior towards plastic products. The survey includes 213 individual observations wherein four information posts that represent the overall facets of plastic usage problem were presented. These scenarios include (1) a general information post on sachet use, (2) an information post discouraging use of plastic bottles in celebration of zero waste month, (3) an information post on the adverse health effects of plastic food storage and (4) an information post on the harmful effects of plastic use to marine life and its indirect effect to human health. Results show that, prior to any information, most participants consume products in plastic packaging except for the usage of single-use plastic containers for storing food. For the first three scenarios, it has been found that social media intensifies the probability of avoiding plastic consumption when the likelihood on the involvement of self-interest on the topic, as well as the ability to read the link attached to the post, increases. However, for the scenario that shows harmful effects of plastic use to marine life, the probability of avoiding the use of plastic packaged products after seeing the post is only affected by the likelihood that the respondent will recommend the link to friends or network. This study establishes that social media can effectively influence consumer behavior towards plastic consumption if the information presented are from confirmed studies that can easily translate to results based on their own action and has a direct impact on their health. The contrasting findings based on the different scenarios can be used as palettes in constructing modulated social media posts that can effectively influence consumer behavior towards reducing plastic pollution.

Dilated Fully Convolutional Neural Network for Depth Estimation from a Single Image

Depth prediction plays a key role in understanding a 3D scene. Several techniques have been developed throughout the years, among which Convolutional Neural Network has recently achieved state-of-the-art performance on estimating depth from a single image. However, traditional CNNs suffer from the lower resolution and information loss caused by the pooling layers. And oversized parameters generated from fully connected layers often lead to a exploded memory usage problem. In this paper, we present an advanced Dilated Fully Convolutional Neural Network to address the deficiencies. Taking advantages of the exponential expansion of the receptive field in dilated convolutions, our model can minimize the loss of resolution. It also reduces the amount of parameters significantly by replacing the fully connected layers with the fully convolutional layers. We show experimentally on NYU Depth V2 datasets that the depth prediction obtained from our model is considerably closer to ground truth than that from traditional CNNs techniques.

Modified spider monkey optimization—An enhanced optimization of spectrum sharing in cognitive radio networks

SummaryAt present, the demand for wireless communications is growing tremendously. Cognitive radio network plays an important role in making the spectrum to be used effectively. Uncertainty in channels and interference were generally occurs that reduced the system efficiency. To overcome the load usage problem, the proposed system of spectrum sensing and scheduling algorithms is introduced, where the available spectrums are sensed or detected and scheduled to load the free spectrum. Spectrum sensing is a cognitive radio basic function to thwart the harmful interference with licensed users and detect the available spectrum for enhancing the spectrum's utilization. In the proposed technique, initially, the spectrum sharing and sensing method is put forward to raise the throughput and quality of service necessity. At this time, spectrum sharing in common with scheduling process is presented, where the available spectrum, the load is scheduled and sensed to free the spectrum. Here, the modified spider monkey optimization (MSMO) technique is used for spectrum sensing and detecting free spectrums, thereby enhancing the energy efficiency of the available spectrum. This technique will found the optimal solution and increases the expectation of some decisions. Modified round robin algorithm is used for scheduling load. In this algorithm, every packet flow has its packet queue presented in the network interface controller. The performance analysis is finally measured using metrics such as throughput, handoff, success probability, and false alarm probability.

Performing Non-sexism via Degendering Phoric Forms in English: The Gap between Rules and Practice as Observed in the 9th Edition of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English

Non-sexism is one of the outstanding and obvious proofs of how social and cultural changes are taken into account in the English language. However, it is still a usage problem for natives and learners alike. This paper uses the degendering of phoric elements as an illustration of efforts in the 9th edition of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (OALD9) to capture and express social and cultural changes in the English language. It also attempts to point out some mismatches between rules and actual practice in this enterprise. Finally, it intends to show how the dictionary may act as an ideological tool, imposing, sustaining, highlighting, and perpetuating some points of view to the detriment of others. In practice, the use of more than one structure to achieve non-sexism makes fluency difficult and writing cumbersome.

Modeling sequences of discrete and continuous variables over time with an application to the vehicle ownership and usage problem

The problem of modeling individual decisions repeatedly over time is important to study dynamics in travel behavior, changes in preferences, and adoption of new services or technologies. Although different methods have been proposed to account for dynamics in pure discrete choice contexts, the case where both continuous and discrete decision variables evolve dynamically has not been fully solved. In this paper, we develop a methodology for the problem of vehicle ownership and usage in a finite time horizon, but the formulation is general and can be easily transferred to other contexts where discrete–continuous decision variables are modeled in time. The model specification is based on a recursive binary probit model that maximizes instantaneous and future utility components of discrete choices, and on a linear regression that models the continuous decision variable. Empirical results are obtained using simulated data; validation tests attest that trends in demand are correctly recovered.

Achieving M2M-device authentication through heterogeneous information bound with USIM card

In the commercial launches of Long-term evolution machine type communication (LTE-M), which includes enhanced machine type communication or machine to machine (M2M) communication in the Long-term evolution (LTE), the security issues is worth the attention. Several security problems have been discovered in LTE-M. One such important problem is the non-authenticated usage of the subscriber identity module (SIM) cards. Because M2M communications are not human-centric, the common personal identification number (PIN) code verification mechanism is not suitable for the machine driven communications. In this paper, we propose two approaches to solve the non-authenticated SIM card usage problem by restricting the code in the SIM card to the specific user device. One approach, named IMEI–IMSI pairing, is an enhancement of the original authentication mechanism which performs device authentication by pairing the International Mobile Equipment Identification Number (IMEI), the device’s unique code, and the International Mobile Subscriber Identification Number (IMSI), which is the SIM card’s unique code. Besides ClockSkew-IMSI pairing, the other approach, leverages certain hardware characteristics which are difficult to alter. In particular, we make use of the clock skew, which for each device is slightly different. To evaluate our methods, we implement two approaches on OpenAirInterface, an open source 5G development platform. In comparison to the method proposed for 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), both of our approaches are more efficient in achieving secure device authentication.

Stimulating usage problem generation: An urban mobility case study

Designers improve urban mobility solutions by investigating archetypal usage problems in existing mobility systems. User-centered design methods help accomplish this task, but lack effectiveness when not supported by appropriate tools. Here we posit that the use of a traveller-centred stimulus improves the effectiveness of travel problem generation. To test this hypothesis, an experiment is conducted with two control groups as a baseline for non-stimulated problem generation and two experimental groups that are provided with a traveller-centred stimulus. The two sets of groups are composed of one group of urban mobility experts and one group of non-experts. Results show that stimulated groups generate novel ideas with a greater variety covering most of the traveller experience dimensions than non-stimulated groups.

Visuomotor adaptation to excessive visual displacement in video see-through HMDs

A video see-through head-mounted display (VSHMD) is a modified HMD having an additional small digital camera set (see-through camera set) attached in front of the HMD, which allows users to view the real scene along with virtual information in digitally mixed form. However, although VSHMD has potential utility in augmented reality applications, the visual displacement problem must be overcome. This problem is caused by the distance between the see-through camera and human eye and induces visuomotor performance deterioration. Previous studies have revealed that human adaptation improves the visuomotor performance over time, by rearranging the proprioception. In this study, we extend the visual displacement excessively to 300 mm and investigate the eye–hand and eye–foot visuomotor coordination in two experiments. In Experiment 1, the prism adaptation paradigm is used to compare task performance under various visual displacement conditions. In Experiment 2, the procedures of Experiment 1 are implemented on 3 consecutive days to evaluate the relatively long-term adaptation trend. The results reveal distinct adaptations under all conditions. When excessive visual displacement is unavoidable, sufficient training can improve task performance, similar to the previously discovered perceptual adaptation. However, with increased visual displacement, the task performance improvement decelerates significantly. This improvement attenuation increases as the task performance becomes close to that achieved under bare eye conditions. Although humans can adapt to a large amount of visual displacement, a serious usage problem arises because of this slow adaptation improvement trend.

Development of new agglomerative and performance evaluation models for classification

This study proposes two new hierarchical clustering methods, namely weighted and neighbourhood to overcome the issues such as getting less accuracy, inability to separate the clusters properly and the grouping of more number of clusters which exist in present hierarchical clustering methods. We have also proposed three new criteria to assess the performance of clustering methods: (1) overall effectiveness which means the product of overall efficiency and accuracy of the clusters which is used to evaluate the performance of the hierarchical clustering methods for the class label datasets, (2) modified structure strength S(c) to overcome the usage problem in hierarchical clustering methods to determine the number of clusters for non-class label datasets and (3) R-value which is the ratio of the determinant of the sum of square and cross product matrix of between-clusters to the determinant of the sum of square and cross product matrix of within-clusters. This will help us to validate the performance of hierarchical clustering methods for non-class label datasets. The evolved algorithms provided high accuracy, ability to separate the clusters properly and the grouping of less number of clusters. The performance of the new algorithms with existing algorithms is compared in terms of newly developed performance criteria. The new algorithms thus performed better than the existing algorithms. The whole exercise is done with the help of twelve class label and six non-class label datasets.

Перспективи застосування радіаційних технологій для вирішення проблем водокористування

Перспективи застосування радіаційних технологій для вирішення проблем водокористування

Attitudes to usage vs. actual language use: The case ofliterallyin American English

From a descriptive point of view,literallyis seen as ‘a case of semantic change in progress’ (Israel, 2002: 424), exemplified through the shift from uses such asThis word literally means ‘water’toThis book literally blew my mind. This process of change has been noticed and commented on by language commentators and usage guide writers. In other words, apart from being a case of change in progress,literallyis also a usage problem. Usage problems are ‘features of divided usage’, or ‘instances of usage that have attracted sociolinguistic controversy’ (Tieken–Boon van Ostade, 2015: 57; cf. Kostadinova, 2018). The case of the wordliterally, then, lends itself to an investigation of the relationship between prescriptive approaches to language use typically found in usage guides, and processes of language variation and change, as I will do in this paper. As a crucial aspect to this discussion, I will also address some of the attitudes speakers hold towards the newer uses ofliterally, as attitudes of speakers can help us better understand why prescriptivism may or may not influence language variation and change. In what follows, I will first discuss the variant uses ofliterallyfound in present-day English, and then consider findings on three perspectives on the variation in the use ofliterally, viz. the ‘usage guide’ perspective, the ‘actual use’ perspective and the ‘speakers’ attitudes’ perspective.

Boundary control of flexible satellite vibration in planar motion

In this paper, the planar maneuver of a flexible satellite with regard to its flexible appendages vibration has been studied. The flexible satellite translates and rotates in a plane; in addition, the flexible appendages can also vibrate in that plane. The system governing equations, which are coupled partial and ordinary differential equations, are obtained based on Hamilton's principle. Then the original system converts to three equivalent subsystems, two of which contains one partial differential equation and one ordinary differential equation along with four boundary conditions, by using change of variables. Employing control forces and one control torque which are applied to the central hub, control objectives, tracking the desired angle and suppressing the satellite and its flexible appendages vibrations, are fulfilled. Furthermore, to eliminate spillover instability phenomenon and to exclude in-domain measurement and actuator usage problem, these control torque and forces are designed based on boundary control method. Lyapunov's direct method is employed to prove the asymptotic stability in absence of any damping effect in modeling the vibrations of flexible appendages. Eventually, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed boundary control, numerical simulations are presented.

Asymptotic Analysis of Plausible Tree Hash Modes for SHA-3

Discussions about the choice of a tree hash mode of operation for a standardization have recently been undertaken. It appears that a single tree mode cannot address adequately all possible uses and specifications of a system. In this paper, we review the tree modes which have been proposed, we discuss their problems and propose solutions. We make the reasonable assumption that communicating systems have different specifications and that software applications are of different types (securing stored content or live-streamed content). Finally, we propose new modes of operation that address the resource usage problem for three representative categories of devices and we analyse their asymptotic behavior.

Exploiting implicit beliefs to resolve sparse usage problem in usage-based specification mining

Frameworks and libraries provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that serve as building blocks in modern software development. As APIs present the opportunity of increased productivity, it also calls for correct use to avoid buggy code. The usage-based specification mining technique has shown great promise in solving this problem through a data-driven approach. These techniques leverage the use of the API in large corpora to understand the recurring usages of the APIs and infer behavioral specifications (preconditions and postconditions) from such usages. A challenge for such technique is thus inference in the presence of insufficient usages, in terms of both frequency and richness. We refer to this as a "sparse usage problem." This paper presents the first technique to solve the sparse usage problem in usage-based precondition mining. Our key insight is to leverage implicit beliefs to overcome sparse usage. An implicit belief (IB) is the knowledge implicitly derived from the fact about the code. An IB about a program is known implicitly to a programmer via the language's constructs and semantics, and thus not explicitly written or specified in the code. The technical underpinnings of our new precondition mining approach include a technique to analyze the data and control flow in the program leading to API calls to infer preconditions that are implicitly present in the code corpus, a catalog of 35 code elements in total that can be used to derive implicit beliefs from a program, and empirical evaluation of all of these ideas. We have analyzed over 350 millions lines of code and 7 libraries that suffer from the sparse usage problem. Our approach realizes 6 implicit beliefs and we have observed that adding single-level context sensitivity can further improve the result of usage based precondition mining. The result shows that we achieve overall 60% in precision and 69% in recall and the accuracy is relatively improved by 32% in precision and 78% in recall compared to base usage-based mining approach for these libraries.

Process operating performance optimality assessment and non-optimal cause identification under uncertainties

In his research, a modified Dynamic Causal Diagram (DCD) based process operating performance optimality assessment and non-optimal cause identification method is proposed to handle the online assessment of the complicated chemical processes, where certainties and uncertainties coexist. In addition, the multi-source information usage problem of the traditional DCD is addressed. In the online application, a newly developed scheme is developed, which distinguishes stable performance grade and grades switch transition. For the non-optimal performances, a contribution based root cause identification method is developed, on the framework of the constructed DCD. Finally, the operating performance of a gold hydrometallurgy process is assessed by both the traditional DCD and the modified DCD. The superiority on accuracy and robustness of the modified DCD is demonstrated, and the responsible events for non-optimality is successfully isolated by the proposed contribution based non-optimal cause identification technique.

Convertible multi-authenticated encryption scheme with verification based on elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem

The work presents a Convertible Multi-Authenticated Encryption CMAE scheme based on the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem ECDLP. The proposed scheme intended to develop the CMAE scheme to improve performance as compared to the other existing schemes. Most CMAE schemes are very high in computational overhead and memory usage problem. This scheme desired to reduce time-consuming problem by using Elliptic Curve Cryptography ECC. In addition, the proposed scheme provides good resistance to the chosen plain-text attacks and is proven to be secure. As for efficiency, the computation cost of the proposed scheme is smaller than the existing schemes, such as Lu et al.'s scheme.

Flat adverbs: acceptable today?

In February 2015, Catherine Bennett published a piece called “Modern Tribes: the grammar pedant” in The Guardian Online. The article focused on so-called usage problems – instances of divided usage concerning grammar, vocabulary or spelling that many people have strong opinions about. (The previous sentence is a good example of such a usage problem: can you indeed end a sentence with a preposition, for instance?) The article itself was not very interesting in its own right: it dealt with all the “old chestnuts”, like less/fewer, disinterested/uninterested and of course the split infinitive. What was interesting, though, was that within a little over ten hours, 84 comments had come in. In the Bridging the Unbridgeable project, we are interested in new usage problems rather than the ones we have been reading about for around two hundred years. So I scoured the comments with great interest. I've already written about what I found in a post on the Bridging the Unbridgeable blog: there were not many new or any very striking complaints, but what I do find of interest is that no-one mentioned the flat adverb. Does this mean that flat adverbs are no longer considered problematical today?