Thinking and Turing's test

The questions raised by A. M. Turing in his paper on thought and machines are discussed. Human thought is considered in turn as a concept of normal language usage, as a basic concept of psychology, and as the basis of intellectual activity. It is concluded that neither of these notions of thought identifies something specific that a human being can or cannot do. The imitation game proposed by Turing for deciding whether a machine can think is found to result from an arbitrary empoverishment of the channel of communication between the interrogator and the item under investigation. Turing's notions of thinking are shown to lead to logical difficulties. An alternative view of consciousness, that would place it beyond the reach of any finite test, is finally discussed.     

Heavy Majorana neutrinos in e + e − → W + W−

In this paper we investigate the effects of heavy Majorana neutrinos in the reaction e ⁺ e ^? → W ⁺ W ^?. We consider neutrino masses in the 1–10 TeV region. We show that at LEP II and NLC energies it is possible to use this processes to verify indirect evidence of heavy neutral particles with mixing angles of the order sin² α = 0.01. We discuss the unitarity restrictions that can be obtained for vector singlet and fermion-mirror-fermion models.     

The accurate dimensional measurements within small internal structures

This paper shows that the dimension of internal structure of a component can be measured remotely to a resolution better than 5 μm by use of the combination of high resolution optical microscopy and image processing.A specialised high resolution, long working distance and diffraction limited lens was used to image within the component. A series of digital images were made to map spatially the interior of the component. An edge detector was then used to localise the specific location of features in order that an accurate internal measurement could be made. A visualisation of the internal surface finish was also achieved.     

Vibrational spectrum of uridine obtained by means of nonresonant-background-free CARS spectroscopy

Received: 18 June 1996/Revised version: 3 January 1997     

Double-diffusive convection for a heated cylinder submerged in a salt-stratified fluid layer

Double-diffusive convection due to a cylindrical source submerged in a salt-stratified solution is numerically investigated in this study. For proper simulation of the vortex generated around the cylinder, a computational domain with irregular shape is employed. Flow conditions depend strongly on the thermal Rayleigh number, Ra _T , and the buoyancy ratio, R _ρ. There are two types of onset of instability existing in the flow field. Both types are due to either the interaction of the upward temperature gradient and downward salinity gradient or the interaction of the lateral temperature gradient and downward salinity gradient. The onset of layer instability due to plume convection is due to the former, whereas, the onset of layer instability of layers around the cylinder is due to the latter. Both types can be found in the flow field. The transport mechanism of layers at the top of the basic plume belongs to former while that due to basic plume and layer around the cylinder are the latter. The increase in Ra _T reinforces the plume convection and reduces the layer numbers generated around the cylinder for the same buoyancy ratio. For the same Ra _T , the increase of R _ρ suppresses the plume convection but reinforces the layers generated around the cylinder. The profiles of local Nusselt number reflects the heat transfer characteristics of plume convection and layered structure. The profiles of averaged Nusselt number are between the pure conduction and natural convection modes and the variation is due to the evolution of layers. Received on 13 September 1996     

Time-harmonic response of a vertical crack in plates

A technique for the characterization of an interior crack perpendicular to the surface of the plates is presented. A time-harmonic line load is applied on the upper surface of the plate. The scattered displacement field is calculated by using the strip element method. It is found that there are additional superimposed oscillations in the curve of the absolute values of the displacement in the region between the load and the crack. The mean value of the peaks of the additional oscillations increases with the crack length, and is less dependent on the distance from the load to the crack. The crack position is determined from the displacement distribution curve and the crack length is determined from the mean value of the peaks of the additional oscillations. Approximate polynomial formula of degree four for predicting the length of interior vertical cracks in isotropic homogeneous plates is also proposed. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the present technique.     

多复变数的Schwarz导数(IV)

从2个不同的Lie群出发 ,定义与讨论了2种互不等价的Cⁿ中域上的全纯映照的Schwarz导数，给出了这2种Schwarz导数为零的充要条件 .