Research prospect of autonomous driving decision technology under complex traffic scenarios

Decision-making system is the essential part of the autonomous vehicle “brain”, which determines the safety and stability of vehicles, and is also the key to reflect the intelligent level of autonomous vehicles. Compared with simple scenarios such as expressway, urban traffic scenarios have the characteristics of complex and frequent interaction between traffic participants. Carrying out in-depth research on complex traffic scenarios and optimizing autonomous decision-making algorithms are the key methods for the purpose of promoting the application of autonomous driving technologies. In the future, we can further combine the artificial intelligence methods such as cognitive or knowledge map, behaviour prediction of traffic participants, and humanoid intelligence, so as to enhance the intelligent level of autonomous driving.

A Brief Review on Aerodynamic Performance of Wingtip Slots and Research Prospect

Wingtip slots, where the outer primary feathers of birds split and spread vertically, are regarded as an evolved favorable feature that could effectively improve their aerodynamic performance. They have inspired many to perform experiments and simulations as well as to relate their results to aircraft design. This paper aims to provide guidance for the research on the aerodynamic mechanism of wingtip slots. Following a review of previous wingtip slot research, four imperfections are put forward: vacancies in research content, inconsistencies in research conclusions, limitations of early research methods, and shortage of the aerodynamic mechanism analysis. On this basis, further explorations and expansion of the influence factors for steady state are needed; more attention should be poured into the application of flow field integration method to decompose drag, and evaluation of variation in induced drag seems a more rational choice. Geometric and kinematic parameters of wingtip slot structure in the unsteady state, as well as the flexibility of wingtips, should be taken into account. As for the aerodynamic mechanism of wingtip slots, the emphasis can be placed on the study of the formation, development, and evolution of wingtip vortices on slotted wings. Besides, some research strategies and feasibility analyses are proposed for each part of the research.

Trust and Social Inequality: The Case of Russia

The article focuses on the study of relationship between trust and social inequality in Russian society. The methodological framework is an integrated multidisciplinary approach which combines sociological and economic theories. The research is based on official statistics and social surveys of international, national, and regional levels. The analysis shows that in Russia there is still excessive inequality (since 2003, the fund ratio has not dropped below 15 times, and the Ginny index is below 0.4). Using the method of two-dimensional distributions, we assessed the impact of social inequality on the level of generalized trust in Russia as a whole and the Vologda Oblast in particular. It was revealed that the Russian society is characterized by a low level of social trust and its increasing trends cannot be predicted. The existing mistrust is compounded by the stratification of society, persistence of significant differences in the level of well-being of the population, and the lack of mutual understanding between the poor and the rich. The article confirms the fact that the level of generalized trust depends on the economic component: with a decrease in well-being of the population, the level of mistrust grows. We conclude that the variables of inequality and trust form a vicious circle with poles of inversely proportional impact on each other. The practical task is to find a solution to the current situation. As a further research prospect, the article indicates the development of science-based proposals in solving the problem of the relationship between social inequality and public trust.

“Vocal Form” as a Music-Phonetic Speech Genre: Aspects of Study

Vocal music is a form of existence and realization of a language. Primarily, it is oral speech of a specific type. Prosodic features of vocal music, as well as its rhythm and intonation, are formed as a result of direct music-language interaction. Therefore, intonational language-music correlation provides possibility of linguistic description of national vocal music and confirms the necessity to develop theoretical foundation for studying this issue. We consider vocal speech of any genre (song, aria or choral singing) in view of its prosodic features. Correspondingly, we consider intonational realization of a vocal text as related to distinctive features of intonation within phonetic system of a given language. In the present article, the authors term vocal-music speech phenomenon as a vocal form of a language, and specify the rationale that it could be related to elements of various levels of oral text. Several aspects of the vocal form are defined, namely phonatory, phonetic, rhythmic and intonational, and considered in the following branches of linguistics: phonostylistics, intonology and speech studies. The paper presents the concept of vocal form of a language within the research prospect. According to structure-based phonological approach, the vocal form as a music-language object is interpreted as a system component, its elements being defined as language units.

The Bioactivities and Potential Clinical Values of Angelica Sinensis Polysaccharides

Angelica sinensis Radix (ASR), one of the most commonly used traditional Chinese medicines, contains many chemical components such as polysaccharides, volatile oil, flavonoids, amino acids, and organic acids, among which polysaccharides play an indispensable role in the therapeutic effect of ASR. A. sinensis polysaccharide (ASP) has many biological activities, for instance, hematopoietic, anti-tumor, and liver protection, which are closely related to the treatment of human diseases such as chronic anemia, leukemia, and diabetes. In addition, there are excellent application prospects for drug delivery in nanoparticles. This paper reviews the chemical compositions, extraction methods, biological activity, action mechanism, potential clinical applications, nanoparticles, and research prospect of ASP from 2010 to 2020, so as to provide references for its further development.

Effect and influencing factors of modified biochar adsorption for the removal of nitrate nitrogen from water bodies

Nitrate-nitrogen pollution in water is a global problem. The research on the remediation technology of NO3--N polluted water has become a hot research direction in recent years. Biochar has a good adsorption effect on nitrate nitrogen because of its unique surface structure and rich surface properties. In this paper, the basic properties of biochar are introduced, and the research progress on the adsorption effect of modified biochar for nitrate nitrogen removal and the influencing factors are summarized. The problems and shortcomings in the current technology field were analyzed, and the research prospect and direction of using biochar to remove nitrate nitrogen were pointed out.