Team learning: Collectively connecting the dots.

This article tests the degree to which personal and situational variables impact the acquisition of knowledge and skill within interactive project teams. On the basis of the literature regarding attentional capacity, constructive controversy, and truth-supported wins, the authors examined the effects of cognitive ability, workload distribution, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and structure on team learning. Results from 109 four-person project teams working on an interdependent command and control simulator indicated that teams learned more when composed of individuals who were high in cognitive ability and when the workload was distributed evenly. Conversely, team learning was negatively affected when teams were composed of individuals who were high in Agreeableness. Finally, teams using a paired structure learned more than teams structured either functionally or divisionally. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as possible limitations and directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implementation of Kalman Filter on PSoC-5 Microcontroller for Mobile Robot Localization

Robots facilitate exploration of hazardous environments during response to catastrophe. Autonomous robotic platforms involved in search and rescue operations require accurate position and orientation （localization） information for self-navigation from its current position to its subsequent destination. A Hybrid Routing Algorithm Model has been proposed by the SPACE （structures, pointing and control engineering） URC （university research center） at California State University of Los Angeles. This model envisions three-layered terrain mapping with obstacle representations from various information sources such as satellites, UAVs and onboard range sensors. A＊ path-finding algorithm is applied to the outer two layers of the model （Layer 1 and Layer 2）, while dynamic A＊ algorithm is responsible for innermost layer （Layer 3） navigation. The mobile robot localization information is computed using data obtained from a 9 Degrees of Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit. While gyroscope sensors provide the system the instantaneous radial velocity of a turning platform, these sensors are also susceptible to drift. Accelerometers are extremely sensitive to vibrations, and along with fluctuating magnetic fields, both accelerometers and magnetometers exhibit noisy behaviors when localizing the robot. Since the IMU contains all three sensors, a Kalman Filter is implemented on a PSoC-5 microcontroller to fuse data from the IMU sensors. This reduces standard deviation between measurements and improves reported heading accuracy, hence provides reliable information on the robot＇s localization and improves mapping.     

Reducing the negative effects of stress in teams through cross-training: A job demands-resources model.

The purpose of this study was to utilize the job demands-resources model to examine the direct and interactive effects of job demands and cross-training on cognitive, behavioral, and affective outcomes in teams. Results from 54 teams indicated that an increase in job demands reduced mental model accuracy and information allocation and increased tension among team members. Cross-training, on the other hand, increased mental model accuracy and decreased tension among team members. More importantly, the direct effects of cross-training were qualified by the interaction. When job demands were high, cross-trained teams evidenced higher mental model accuracy, more information allocation, and less tension than teams that were not cross-trained. Cross-training was less influential when job demands were low, indicating that cross-training acted as a resource to buffer the negative impact of job demands in teams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transforming arbitrary tables into logical form with TARTAR

The tremendous success of the World Wide Web is countervailed by efforts needed to search and find relevant information. For tabular structures embedded in HTML documents, typical keyword or link-analysis based search fails. The Semantic Web relies on annotating resources such as documents by means of ontologies and aims to overcome the bottleneck of finding relevant information. Turning the current Web into a Semantic Web requires automatic approaches for annotation since manual approaches will not scale in general. Most efforts have been devoted to automatic generation of ontologies from text, but with quite limited success. However, tabular structures require additional efforts, mainly because understanding of table contents requires the comprehension of the logical structure of the table on the one hand, as well as its semantic interpretation on the other. The focus of this paper is on the automatic transformation and generation of semantic (F-Logic) frames from table-like structures. The presented work consists of a methodology, an accompanying implementation (called TARTAR) and a thorough evaluation. It is based on a grounded cognitive table model which is stepwise instantiated by the methodology. A typical application scenario is the automatic population of ontologies to enable query answering over arbitrary tables (e.g. HTML tables).     

Microstructure Development in Low-Antimony Oxide-Doped Zinc Oxide Ceramics

The grain growth of ZnO ceramics sintered with low additions of Sb₂O₃ (<500 ppm of Sb) was investigated. Additions of Sb<250 ppm resulted in a coarse-grained microstructure with large ZnO grains (55–70 μm), much larger than the grain size of ZnO ceramics without any Sb₂O₃ addition (45 μm). The addition of 500 ppm of Sb resulted in a fine-grained microstructure with an average ZnO grain size of about 12 μm. The results are explained by an inversion-boundary (IB) -induced grain-growth mechanism. The grain-growth exponent has a value of about 2 as long as the grains containing IBs grow at the expense of IB-free grains. It increases to about 4 after the IB-containing grains impinge on each other, and achieves values above 10 for additions of 500 ppm of Sb when IBs nucleate in nearly all the ZnO grains so that grains with IBs prevail in the microstructure at an early stage in the grain-growth process.     

A mobile virtual-distributed system architecture for supporting wireless mobile computing and communications

This paper describes a novel mobile virtual-distrubuted system architecture for supporting global mobile computing and communications. the principal contribution of this paper is to innovatively apply virtual memory concepts to mobile systems by deploying mobile-floating agents to de-couple services and resources from the underlying network and allow them to move around following their mobile users. The mobile-floating agents maintain data structures associated with a mobile user. By combining the mobile-floating agent functions with a predictive mobility management algorithm and location-aware caching and prefetching, services and user data structure are pre-connected and pre-assigned at the locations to which the user is moving. Thus, the users can maintain their data structures or immediately receive service with virtually the same efficiency as at the previous location.     

Deconstructed Microfluidic Bone Marrow On‐A‐Chip to Study Normal and Malignant Hemopoietic Cell–Niche Interactions

Human hematopoietic niches are complex specialized microenvironments that maintain and regulate hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC). Thus far, most of the studies performed investigating alterations of HSPC‐niche dynamic interactions are conducted in animal models. Herein, organ microengineering with microfluidics is combined to develop a human bone marrow (BM)‐on‐a‐chip with an integrated recirculating perfusion system that consolidates a variety of important parameters such as 3D architecture, cell–cell/cell–matrix interactions, and circulation, allowing a better mimicry of in vivo conditions. The complex BM environment is deconvoluted to 4 major distinct, but integrated, tissue‐engineered 3D niche constructs housed within a single, closed, recirculating microfluidic device system, and equipped with cell tracking technology. It is shown that this technology successfully enables the identification and quantification of preferential interactions—homing and retention—of circulating normal and malignant HSPC with distinct niches.     

Freeze Casting: From Low-Dimensional Building Blocks to Aligned Porous Structures—A Review of Novel Materials,Methods, and Applications

Freeze casting, also known as ice templating, is a particularly versatile technique that has been applied extensively for the fabrication of well-controlled biomimetic porous materials based on ceramics, metals, polymers, biomacromolecules, and carbon nanomaterials, endowing them with novel properties and broadening their applicability. The principles of different directional freeze-casting processes are described and the relationships between processing and structure are examined. Recent progress in freeze-casting assisted assembly of low dimensional building blocks, including graphene and carbon nanotubes, into tailored micro- and macrostructures is then summarized. Emerging trends relating to novel materials as building blocks and novel freeze-cast geometries—beads, fibers, films, complex macrostructures, and nacre-mimetic composites—are presented. Thereafter, the means by which aligned porous structures and nacre mimetic materials obtainable through recently developed freeze-casting techniques and low-dimensional building blocks can facilitate material functionality across multiple fields of application, including energy storage and conversion, environmental remediation, thermal management, and smart materials, are discussed.     

Transfer of fibroblast sheets cultured on thermoresponsive dishes with membranes

In cell or tissue engineering, it is essential to develop a support for cell-to-cell adhesion, which leads to the generation of cell sheets connected by extracellular matrix. Such supports must be hydrophobic and should result in a detachable cell sheet. A thermoresponsive support that enables the cultured cell sheet to detach using only a change in temperature could be an interesting alternative in regenerative medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate plates covered with thermoresponsive polymers as supports for the formation of fibroblast sheets and to develop a damage-free procedure for cell sheet transfer with the use of membranes as transfer tools. Human skin fibroblasts were seeded on supports coated with a thermoresponsive polymer: commercial UpCell? dishes (NUNC?) coated with thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) and dishes coated with thermoresponsive poly(tri(ethylene glycol) monoethyl ether methacrylate) (P(TEGMA-EE)). Confluent fibroblast sheets were effectively cultured and harvested from both commercial PNIPAM-coated dishes and laboratory P(TEGMA-EE)-coated dishes. To transfer a detached cell sheet, two membranes, Immobilon-P^® and SUPRATHEL^®, were examined. The use of SUPRATHEL for relocating the cell sheets opens a new possibility for the clinical treatment of wounds. This study established the background for implementing thermoresponsive supports for transplanting in vitro cultured fibroblasts.