Mutual Comprehensibility of Written Afrikaans and Dutch: Symmetrical or Asymmetrical?

The two West-Germanic languages Dutch and Afrikaans are so closelyrelated that they can be expected to be mutually intelligibleto a large extent. The present investigation focuses on writtenlanguage. Comprehension was established by means of cloze testson the basis of two newspaper articles. Results suggest thatit is easier for Dutch subjects to understand written Afrikaansthan it is for South African subjects to understand writtenDutch. In order to explain the results, attitudes as well asseveral types of linguistic distances were assessed. The relationsbetween attitude scales and intelligibility scores were fewand weak. Asymmetries in the linguistic relationships betweenthe two languages are probably more important, especially theasymmetries in the number of noncognates and the opacity ofthe relatedness of cognates. These asymmetries are caused byhistorical developments in Dutch and Afrikaans, with respectto the lexicon, grammar, and spelling.     

A micro computer decision support system for the total-productivity model (TPM)

The Total Productivity Model (TPM), developed by Sumanth in 1979, has been applied to a number of situations involving manufacturing as well as service-oriented operations. The diversity of applications on the one hand, and the flexibility of usage of the microcomputers on the other hand, have helped to focus the need for a micro-computer based Decision Support System (DSS). This paper presents such a system using the Macintosh Computer. This DSS is a highly interactive, menu-driven program that can provide on-the screen capabilities of individual operational units as well as the firm that comprises of them. The system has several convenient features to assess the “PRODUCTIVITY- ORIENTED PROFITABILITY” of any type companies/organizations. The system logic and flow chart, data input and output formats, and sensitivity analysis will be shown and discussed in the paper. A balanced critique will be offered to view the system in a proper perspective with respect to structural elements of the Decision Support System.     

Parental perceptions of child behavior problems, parenting self-esteem, and mothers' reported stress in younger and older hyperactive and normal children.

40 parents of younger and older hyperactives (Hs; aged 5 yrs 1 mo and 8 yrs 4 mo, respectively) and 51 parents of age-matched normal controls completed measures of hyperactivity and child behavior, parenting self-esteem (PSE), and parenting stress. PSE was lower in parents of Hs than in parents of controls. Self-esteem related to skill/knowledge as a parent was age related, with parents of older Hs reporting the lowest levels; self-esteem related to valuing/comfort in the parenting role was not related to the child's age. Mothers of Hs, especially younger ones, reported markedly higher levels of stress associated with both child characteristics and their own feelings, such as depression, self-blame, and social isolation. Consistent inverse relationships were found between PSE and perceptions of child problems, whereas ratings of child disturbance and maternal stress were positively correlated. Findings are discussed in terms of the social contexts surrounding hyperactivity and the need for multidimensional assessments and interventions in families of Hs. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effectiveness of psychotherapy: The perennial controversy.

Reviews a number of important reviews of research on outcome in psychotherapy and evaluates the various critiques of these reviews and the issues involved. Although a number of important limitations in both existing research and the reviews of research are indicated, it is claimed that the different evaluations of the effectiveness of psychotherapy are influenced in part by the personal views of the individuals involved. It is argued that what is needed to help resolve past and current controversies is research that leads to a better understanding of the variables that produce change. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Non-local Topology-Preserving Segmentation-Guided Registration Model

In this paper, we address the issue of designing a theoretically well-motivated segmentation-guided registration method capable of handling large and smooth deformations. The shapes to be matched are viewed as hyperelastic materials and more precisely as Saint Venant–Kirchhoff ones and are implicitly modeled by level set functions. These are driven in order to minimize a functional containing both a nonlinear-elasticity-based regularizer prescribing the nature of the deformation, and a criterion that forces the evolving shape to match intermediate topology-preserving segmentation results. Theoretical results encompassing existence of minimizers, existence of a weak viscosity solution of the related evolution problem and asymptotic results are given. The study is then complemented by the derivation of the discrete counterparts of the asymptotic results provided in the continuous domain. Both a pure quadratic penalization method and an augmented Lagrangian technique (involving a related dual problem) are investigated with convergence results.     

Performance evaluation of ProJet multi-material jetting 3D printer

The purpose of this paper is to quantitatively evaluate the performance of a multi-material jetting 3D printer, ProJet 5500X, especially the capability for micro manufacturing. Unlike other single material 3D printer, ProJet 5500X uses photopolymers as the build material and wax as the support material. The building performance was evaluated by building a modified version of the standard benchmark model with a high-resolution printing mode. The dimensional error, forming quality and surface roughness of the printed parts have been measured and analysed using a microscope, a 3D coordinate measuring machine and a surface profilometer. Using wax as the support material, fine features as small as 0.25?mm, lateral features and sharper edges could all be properly built, despite the rough side surfaces observed in the printed part. Identical features (3?mm pins) were precisely built with an accuracy of 15?µm. The research provides first-hand detailed performance knowledge in the ProJet system for understanding the working principle and comparison with other 3D printing systems.     

Biphasic Supramolecular Self‐Assembly of Ferric Ions and Tannic Acid across Interfaces for Nanofilm Formation

Cell nanoencapsulation provides a chemical tool for the isolation and protection of living cells from harmful, and often lethal, external environments. Although several strategies are available to form nanometric films, most methods heavily rely on time‐consuming multistep processes and are not biocompatible. Here, the interfacial supramolecular self‐assembly and film formation of ferric ions (Fe^III) and tannic acid (TA) in biphasic systems is reported, where Fe^III and TA come into contact each other and self‐assemble across the interface of two immiscible phases. The interfacial nanofilm formation developed is simple, fast, and cytocompatible. Its versatility is demonstrated with various biphasic systems: hollow microcapsules, encasing microbial or mammalian cells, that are generated at the water–oil interface in a microfluidic device; a cytoprotective Fe^III–TA shell that forms on the surface of the alginate microbead, which then entraps probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus; and a pericellular Fe^III–TA shell that forms on individual Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This biphasic interfacial reaction system provides a simple but versatile structural motif in materials science, as well as advancing chemical manipulability of living cells.     

Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Boundary Resistances of ALD Al$$_{}$$O$$_{3}$$3 Films on Si and Sapphire

On Si and sapphire substrates, 6–45 nm thick films of atomic layer-deposited Al\(_{2}\)O\(_{3}\) were grown. The thermal conductivity of ALD films has been determined from a linear relation between film thickness and thermal resistance measured by the 3\(\omega \) method. ALD films on Si and sapphire showed almost same thermal conductivity in the temperature range of 50–350 K. Residual thermal resistance was also obtained by extrapolation of the linear fit and was modeled as a sum of the thermal boundary resistances at heater–film and film–substrate interfaces. The total thermal resistance addenda for films on sapphire was close to independently measured thermal boundary resistance of heater–sapphire interface. From the result, it was deduced that the thermal boundary resistance at ALD Al\(_{2}\)O\(_{3}\)–sapphire interface was much lower than that of heater–film. By contrast, the films on Si showed significantly larger thermal boundary resistance than films on sapphire. Data of \(< 30\) nm films on Si were excluded because an AC coupling of electrical heating voltage to semiconductive Si complicated the relation between 3\(\omega \) voltage and temperature.     

Contradicting incentives for research collaboration

This study describes the Danish publication award system (BFI), investigates whether its built-in incentives have had an effect on publication behavior at the University of Southern Denmark, and discusses the possible future implications on researcher incentives should universities wish to measure BFI on the individual level. We analyzed publication data from the university CRIS system (Pure) and from SciVal. Several studies indicate that co-authored scholarly journal articles attract more citations than single author articles. The reason for this are not clear, however, research collaboration across institutions and countries is commonly accepted in the research community and among university managements as one way of increasing the researcher’s and institution’s reputation and impact. The BFI system is designed to award scholarly publication activity at Danish universities, especially publication in international journals of high status. However, we find that the built-in incentives leave the researcher and his or her institution with a dilemma: If the researchers optimize their performance by forming author groups with external collaborators, the optimal way of doing so for the researchers is not the optimal way seen from the perspective of the university. Our analysis shows that the typical article has 6.5 authors, two of which are internal, and that this has remained stable since the introduction of the BFI. However, there is variation across the disciplines. While ‘the Arts and Humanities’ and ‘the Social Sciences’ seem to compose author groups in a way which does not optimize the performance of the institution, both ‘Health’ and ‘the Natural Sciences’ seem to optimize according to criteria other than those specified in the BFI.