Who cares what the outgroup thinks? Testing an information search model of the importance individuals accord to an outgroup member's view of them during intergroup interaction.

Four studies examined whether the intensity of individuals' concern with evaluation is affected by whether they are engaged in intragroup or intergroup interaction. According to the authors' theoretical framework, the importance that individuals attach to another person's opinion is a function of how predictive that person's evaluation seems to be of their social standing and outcomes. Members of lower status groups are more invested in outgroup members' opinions with increasing perceived legitimacy of the group status difference because outgroup members are seen as better judges of the competencies necessary for success in society. Members of a higher status group are more invested in outgroup members' opinions with decreasing perceived legitimacy of the group status difference because outgroup members are seen as better judges of moral goodness. Results were generally consistent with these predictions and demonstrated that intergroup exchanges are sometimes characterized by heightened levels of the basic motivation to know one's social standing with others. Findings also revealed that the interactive effect of group status and perceived legitimacy extends to egocentric biases that contribute to tension and miscommunication in intergroup interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Access concentration detection in click logs to improve mobile Web-IR

Effective ranking algorithms for mobile Web searches are being actively pursued. Due to the peculiar and troublesome properties of mobile contents such as scant text, few outward links, and few input keywords, conventional Web search techniques using bag-of-words ranking functions or link-based algorithms are not good enough for mobile Web searches. Our solution is to use click logs to clarify access-concentrated search results for each query and to utilize the titles and snippets to expand the queries. Many previous works regard the absolute click numbers as the degree of access concentration, but they are strongly biased such that higher-ranked search results are more easily clicked than lower-ranked ones. Therefore, it is considered that only higher-ranked search results are access-concentrated ones and that only terms extracted from them can be used to expand a query. In this paper, we introduce a new measure that is capable of estimating the degree of access concentration. This measure is used to precisely extract access concentration sites from many search results and to expand queries with terms extracted from them. We conducted an experiment using the click logs and data from an actual mobile Web search site. Results obtained show that our proposed method is a more effective way to boost the search precision than using other query expansion methods such as the top K search results or the most-often-clicked search results.     

Self-hold and precisely controllable optical cross-connect switches using ultrasonic micro motors

In this paper, we propose new optical cross-connect switches using ultrasonic micro motors, whose features are self-hold, precise control, and low electric power consumption. Two methods are examined for optical beam deflection. One method is moving the lens and the other is rotating the mirror by using ultrasonic micro motors. The light from the optical fiber is collimated using a self-focusing (SELFOC) lens and is deflected by moving the lens, with an ultrasonic linear motor, perpendicularly to the fiber axis. The light is then coupled to another fiber. Another proposed method is to use reflection mirrors. This structure is composed of a magnetized material attached to a micro mirror and a permanent magnet mounted on a shaft of an ultrasonic rotation motor. The reflected beam is deflected by rotating the mirror. In both methods, precise beam deflection is demonstrated, and optical switching characteristics are confirmed.     

Characteristic properties of cutting fluid additives derived from the reaction products of hydroxyl fatty acids with some acid anhydrides

Several adducts were prepared from the thermal reaction of hydroxyl fatty acids (ricinoleic acid oligomers, 12-hydroxystearic acid oligomers, oleyl alcohol, dehydrated castor oil fatty acids, and dimer acid) with maleic anhydride and screened as water-soluble cutting fluids. For example, aqueous solutions of triethanolamine salts with the products of ricinoleic acid oligomers, 12-hydroxystearic acid dimer, and 12-hydroxysteric acid hexamer showed good antirust properties for waterbased cutting fluids. Various half esters of hydroxyl fatty compounds with acid anhydrides were prepared. Aqueous solutions of triethanolamine salts of half esters of maleic anhydride and succinic anhydride and phthalic anhydride with hydroxyl fatty acids gave good antirust and antiwear properties for waterbased cutting fluids.     

Measurement and evaluation of the thermal diffusivity of two-layered materials

Transient methods, such as those with pulse- or step-wise heating, have often been used to measure thermal diffusivity of various materials including layered composite materials. The aim of the present study is to investigate effects of various parameters on the measurement of thermal diffusivity when the transient methods are applied. Mainly a two-layered material in the pulsewise heating method is considered because of its simplicity and usefulness in identifying and determining the effects of the parameters. First, it has been shown that there exists a special condition for determining the thermal diffusivity of a component in the two-layered material whose other relevant thermophysical properties are known. Second, it has been shown that the thickness of the laserbeam absorption layer, which inevitably makes sample material into the twolayered material, may cause a relatively large error when the thermal diffusivity of the base material is high. Finally, it has been derived a definite relation between the apparent thermal diffusivity obtained from the temperature response and the mean thermal diffusivity, which has a physical meaning related to the thermal resistance.     

Development of a liquid-xenon photon detector--towards the search for a muon rare decay mode at Paul Scherrer Institute

We are developing a new type of photon detector in preparation of an experiment to search for muons decaying into positrons and gamma rays. In the experiment, the photon detector will utilize liquid xenon (Xe) as the scintillation material because of its fast response, large light yield, and high density. The scintillation light emitted in liquid Xe will be observed directly by positioning photomultipliers (PMTs) in the liquid without using a transmission window. In order to determine proper experimental procedures and to study the detector response to gamma rays, we constructed a prototype utilizing a 100 l volume of liquid Xe. The current status and future prospects of detector development are reported in this article.     

Deterministic polynomial-time quantum algorithms for Simon’s problem

D. R. Simon stated a problem, so-called Simons problem, whose computational complexity is in the class BQP but not in BPP, where is the function or oracle given in the problem. This result indicates that BPP may be strictly included in its quantum counterpart, BQP. Later, G. Brassard and P. Høyer showed that Simons problem and its extended version can be solved by a deterministic polynomial time quantum algorithm. That is, these problems are in the class EQP. In this paper, we show that Simons problem and its extended version can be deterministically solved in a simpler and more concrete way than that proposed by G. Brassard and P. Høyer.     

Hot-pressed Mn-Zn ferrite for magnetic recording heads

Hot-pressed ferrites have been studied in connection with fabrication of a high quality head material. A two-step hot-pressing technique has enabled the preparation of hot-pressed ferrite with a porosity lower than 0.1 percent and an adjusted average grain size between 0.1 μm and 500 μm. The largest available ingot of hot-pressed ferrite is 120 mm in diameter and 20 mm in thickness. A hot-pressed Mn-Zn ferrite with an adjusted microstructure can be made with a μmof 40 000 and an Hclower than 0.02 Oe. A hot-pressed Mn-Zn ferrite of another composition will have a Bmgreater than 5000 G and a μ0of 700 at 10 MHz. The effect of mechanical working on magnetic properties of hot-pressed ferrites, single-crystal ferrites, and high-density ferrites is also described. The lapping characteristics and the wear problems in a ferrite head of hot-pressed, single-crystal, and high-density ferrite are also discussed.