Comments on “Multiphase systolic algorithms for spectraldecomposition” [and reply]

Comments that the paper by Liu and Yao (see ibid., vol.40, no.1, p.190, 1992) presented an efficient algorithm for spectral decomposition, but the parallel algorithm and architecture for the Hessenberg reduction has a problem. The matrix obtained from the unitary similarity transformation is not necessarily a Hessenberg matrix. The authors reply that the Hessenberg reduction described is not in the Hessenberg form. Only the first column is in its proper form. There are many ways to overcome such a problem. One simple way is to use the multiphase rectangular systolic array     

浙江泵业何去何从?

浙江省已经成为我国最大的泵产品制造省份，温州、台州、杭州是浙江省泵制造业的三个生产基地，永嘉还被中通协授予“中国泵阀之乡”的称号，然而许多浙江籍泵企业领导都有这样的感慨；企业的初期发展非常快，但发展到一定规模后，速度就停止下来了，专家牟介刚一直关注浙江泵业的发展，在本文中，分析了浙江泵业普遍存在的深层不足，并给出了今后如何发展的措施建议，值得浙江的泵业企业家们关注。     

Culture and group perception: Dispositional and stereotypic inferences about novel and national groups.

In 3 studies, the authors tested the hypothesis that Chinese participants would view social groups as more entitative than would Americans and, as a result, would be more likely to infer personality traits on the basis of group membership--that is, to stereotype. In Study 1, Chinese participants made stronger stereotypic trait inferences than Americans did on the basis of a target's membership in a fictitious group. Studies 2 and 3 showed that Chinese participants perceived diverse groups as more entitative and attributed more internally consistent dispositions to groups and their members. Guided by culturally based lay theories about the entitative nature of groups, Chinese participants may stereotype more readily than do Americans when group membership is available as a source of dispositional inference. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific consumption of liquid biofuels in gasoline fuelled engines

Oxygenated fuels increase fuel consumption due to their low enthalpy of combustion; however, their high antiknock index renders them suitable for use in engines with a high compression rate, increasing their thermal yield. This study evaluated the performance of biorenewable oxygenated fuels (ethanol and isoamyl alcohol) and partially renewable fuels (ETBE: ethyl tert-butyl ether, TAEE: tert-amyl ethyl ether and di-TAE: di-tert-amyl ether) with high degree of purity and in mixtures with automotive gasoline, based on tests with Otto cycle engines. Among the oxygenated fuels evaluated here, di-TAE was found to present the best characteristics of performance, both individually and in mixtures with gasoline.     

Nonisothermal melt-crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene synthesized with a metallocene catalyst and compounded with different quantities of an α nucleator

The nonisothermal crystallization kinetics of a metallocene-made isotactic polypropylene (m-iPP) and its compounds with 0.1 wt % and 0.3 wt % of a sorbitol derivative [1,3:2,4-bis(3,4-dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol (DMDBS); an α nucleator] were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry at different cooling rates from the melt. The nucleation efficiency was proved by a significant increase in the crystallization temperatures (accompanied by a slight augmentation of the degree of crystallinity and a decrease in the crystal sizes). This increase in the crystallization temperatures led to higher amounts of fractional content in the γ polymorph, even though DMDBS was supposed to be a nucleator for the α form. The Avrami and Ozawa methods effectively described only the early stage of crystallization, whereas a combined Avrami–Ozawa method was valid for the whole crystallization process. The values of the exponent for this method decreased for nucleated samples in the later stage of crystallization, especially in the case of m-iPP with 0.3 wt % DMDBS added (m-iPP03). The activation energy of the process and the surface free energy were also estimated. The production of considerable proportions of the γ polymorph in m-iPP03 corresponded to higher values of the activation energy and lower values of the surface free energy. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Faculty and Student Attitudes Toward Community Service: A Comparative Analysis

The Humanitarian Engineering initiative, sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, at the Colorado School of Mines, is creating a program that will support engineering students in understanding their responsibility for solving community development problems that exist throughout the world. As part of this effort, data has been collected on faculty and student attitudes using the ‘Community Service Attitudes Scale,” developed and validated by Shiarella, McCarthy, and Tucker. During the fall 2004, 78 students and 34 faculty members responded to this instrument. Statistically significant differences were found between the attitudes of students and faculty, males and females, and among different age groupings with respect to service activities. A general finding was that faculty displayed better attitudes toward community service than the students.     

Nodally exact Ritz discretizations of 1D diffusion–absorption and Helmholtz equations by variational FIC and modified equation methods

This article presents the first application of the Finite Calculus (FIC) in a Ritz-FEM variational framework. FIC provides a steplength parametrization of mesh dimensions, which is used to modify the shape functions. This approach is applied to the FEM discretization of the steady-state, one-dimensional, diffusion–absorption and Helmholtz equations. Parametrized linear shape functions are directly inserted into a FIC functional. The resulting Ritz-FIC equations are symmetric and carry a element-level free parameter coming from the function modification process. Both constant- and variable-coefficient cases are studied. It is shown that the parameter can be used to produce nodally exact solutions for the constant coefficient case. The optimal value is found by matching the finite-order modified differential equation (FOMoDE) of the Ritz-FIC equations with the original field equation. The inclusion of the Ritz-FIC models in the context of templates is examined. This inclusion shows that there is an infinite number of nodally exact models for the constant coefficient case. The ingredients of these methods (FIC, Ritz, MoDE and templates) can be extended to multiple dimensions     

Siblings' differential experiences of marital conflict and differences in psychological adjustment.

The present study examined whether siblings experience marital conflict differently and whether such differences, if present, were associated with differences in their adjustment. Self-report data about marital conflict, children's depressed mood, behavioral conduct, and externalizing problems were obtained from 122 sibling pairs (mean ages = 10 and 12 years) and their parents. Results indicated that siblings were significantly different in exposure to and appraisals of marital conflict. Differences in siblings' exposure to marital conflict were significantly correlated with differences in their depressed mood, behavioral conduct, and externalizing problems. Differences in siblings' feelings of self-blame for marital conflict were significantly correlated with differences in their depressed mood and behavioral conduct. Children who experienced more marital conflict than their siblings had more adjustment problems than their siblings. These results highlight the importance of studying siblings' unique experiences of marital conflict to better understand its impact on children's adjustment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)