Confucian and Socratic learning.

Replies to the comments by R. A. R. Gurung (see record 2003-03405-011) and J. Li (see record 2003-03405-012) regarding comments on the article by R. G. Tweed and D. R. Lehman (2001) which stated that a Confucian-Socratic framework provides a structure for analyzing culture-influenced aspects of academic learning. In this article, Tweed and Lehman argued that these ancient exemplars model approaches to learning continue to differentiate students within a modern Canadian postsecondary context. In this reply, Tweed and Lehman advise caution in how Gurung placed their Confucian-Socratic framework within the context of prior theory on education and epistemological development because these models were developed exclusively in the West. Furthermore, Tweed and Lehman believe that Li's argument misinterpreted their article, and that they should of consistently used the term "personal reform" rather than "behavioral reform" in order to communicate the depth of personal change envisioned by Confucius. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group-serving biases.

Self-serving biases, found routinely in Western samples, have not been observed in Asian samples. Yet given the orientation toward individualism and collectivism in these 2 cultures, respectively, it is imperative to examine whether parallel differences emerge when the target of evaluation is the group. It may be that Asians show a group-serving bias parallel to the Western self-serving bias. In 2 studies, group-serving biases were compared across European Canadian, Asian Canadian, and Japanese students. Study 1 revealed that Japanese students evaluated a family member less positively than did both groups of Canadian students. Study 2 replicated this pattern with students' evaluations of their universities. The data suggest that cultural differences in enhancement biases are robust, generalizing to individuals' evaluations of their groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Improvement of Palm Oil Biodiesel Filterability by Adsorption Methods

Palm oil biodiesel (POB) is characterized by a very high cold soak filtration time (CSFT), which places the acceptability of this biofuel at risk. Therefore, the effect of four adsorbents, namely diatomaceous earth, natural silicate (NS), neutral bleaching earth (NBE), and acid activated bleaching earth (AABE), at two levels of addition (1 and 5 wt%) or two temperatures (25 and 110 °C) on the precipitate content and CSFT of POB was investigated. The impact on total glycerin content, moisture content, and oxidative stability was also examined. All treatments significantly decreased the precipitate content, total glycerin content, and moisture content, but only treatments with NS, NBE, and AABE at 5 wt% and 25 °C achieved acceptable filterability. The OSI value was also decreased; however, it remained above the ASTM limit. Operational conditions of treatment with AABE were further optimized in a two‐factor, five‐level center composite design. The combination of 0.65 wt% AABE and 10 min at 25 °C decreased CSFT to below the ASTM limit. Lower adsorbent concentrations could be effective down to 0.44 wt%, given a corresponding increase in the contact time up to 30 min.     

Using a system-on-a-chip implantable device to filter circulating infected cells in blood or lymph

This paper describes a system on a chip (SoC) that makes use of nanoscale cellular adhesion mechanisms in an integrated electronic microsystem to filter infected cells from blood or lymph. An example of a human immunodeficiency virus-specific SoC is explored in depth. Such systems work in vivo, and blood and lymph are filtered on a continuous basis. With the intelligence on the chip, captured cells can be identified and lyzed, expelled, or otherwise acted upon. These types of systems transfer the burden of research from traditional chemotherapy to bioengineering and system design.     

Room-temperature oxidation of reduced Cu/ZnO surfaces by lattice oxygen diffusion

At room temperature in the absence of gas-phase oxygen, reduced Cu on Cu/ZnO extracts oxygen from the ZnO lattice to reoxidize the surface. After 120 min at room temperature, diffusion of lattice oxygen reoxidizes reduced Cu/ZnO to 3% of its completely oxidized state. When gas-phase oxygen is present, it promotes the partial reoxidation of the reduced Cu/ZnO surface at room-temperature.     

Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice.

Can people feel worse off as the options they face increase? The present studies suggest that some people--maximizers--can. Study 1 reported a Maximization Scale, which measures individual differences in desire to maximize. Seven samples revealed negative correlations between maximization and happiness, optimism, self-esteem, and life satisfaction, and positive correlations between maximization and depression, perfectionism, and regret. Study 2 found maximizers less satisfied than nonmaximizers (satisficers) with consumer decisions, and more likely to engage in social comparison. Study 3 found maximizers more adversely affected by upward social comparison. Study 4 found maximizers more sensitive to regret and less satisfied in an ultimatum bargaining game. The interaction between maximizing and choice is discussed in terms of regret, adaptation, and self-blame. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conversational conventions, order of information acquisition, and the effect of base rates and individuating information on social judgments.

Numerous studies have shown that people underuse base-rate information in making social judgments and rely instead almost exclusively on individuating information. Seven studies reported here demonstrate that this occurred partly because most past studies gave Ss base-rate information before giving them individuating information. A recency effect in the use of base-rate and individuating information is demonstrated using a set of reasoning problems of varying character. The recency effect is shown to be the result of Ss' inferences (based on conversational conventions) that the experimenter believes that Ss should rely most on the piece of information presented last. Additional evidence discredits the hypothesis that the recency effect is due to heightened availability of more recently acquired information in memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Microelectromechanical devices for satellite thermal control

Future space missions will include constellations of spacecraft, including nano- and picosatellites, where adaptive thermal control systems will be needed that fit the constraints of space applications with limited power and mass budgets. A microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) solution has been developed that will vary the emissivity on the surface of the small satellite radiator. The system is based on louver thermal controllers, where panels are mechanically positioned to modulate the effective radiator surface area. This system consists of MEMS arrays of gold-coated sliding shutters, fabricated with the Sandia ultraplanar, multilevel MEMS technology fabrication process, which utilizes multilayer polycrystalline silicon surface micromachining. The shutters can be operated independently to allow digital control of the effective emissivity. This first demonstrator technology is limited in the possible emittance range to a 40% change. Early prototypes of MEMS louvers that open away from the structure have shown the capability of a much wider dynamic range. The first generation of this active thermal management system will be demonstrated on NASA's New Millennium Program ST-5 spacecraft. With the opportunity to validate the MEMS thermal control technology in space on ST-5, lightweight, low-power MEMS radiators offer a possibility for flexible thermal control on future nanosatellites.     

Bicycle helmets are highly effective at preventing head injury during head impact: Head-form accelerations and injury criteria for helmeted and unhelmeted impacts

Cycling is a popular form of recreation and method of commuting with clear health benefits. However, cycling is not without risk. In Canada, cycling injuries are more common than in any other summer sport; and according to the US National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, 52,000 cyclists were injured in the US in 2010. Head injuries account for approximately two-thirds of hospital admissions and three-quarters of fatal injuries among injured cyclists. In many jurisdictions and across all age levels, helmets have been adopted to mitigate risk of serious head injuries among cyclists and the majority of epidemiological literature suggests that helmets effectively reduce risk of injury. Critics have raised questions over the actual efficacy of helmets by pointing to weaknesses in existing helmet epidemiology including selection bias and lack of appropriate control for the type of impact sustained by the cyclist and the severity of the head impact. These criticisms demonstrate the difficulty in conducting epidemiology studies that will be regarded as definitive and the need for complementary biomechanical studies where confounding factors can be adequately controlled. In the bicycle helmet context, there is a paucity of biomechanical data comparing helmeted to unhelmeted head impacts and, to our knowledge, there is no data of this type available with contemporary helmets. In this research, our objective was to perform biomechanical testing of paired helmeted and unhelmeted head impacts using a validated anthropomorphic test headform and a range of drop heights between 0.5 m and 3.0 m, while measuring headform acceleration and Head Injury Criterion (HIC). In the 2 m (6.3 m/s) drops, the middle of our drop height range, the helmet reduced peak accelerations from 824 g (unhelmeted) to 181 g (helmeted) and HIC was reduced from 9667 (unhelmeted) to 1250 (helmeted). At realistic impact speeds of 5.4 m/s (1.5 m drop) and 6.3 m/s (2.0 m drop), bicycle helmets changed the probability of severe brain injury from extremely likely (99.9% risk at both 5.4 and 6.3 m/s) to unlikely (9.3% and 30.6% risk at 1.5 m and 2.0 m drops respectively). These biomechanical results for acceleration and HIC, and the corresponding results for reduced risk of severe brain injury show that contemporary bicycle helmets are highly effective at reducing head injury metrics and the risk for severe brain injury in head impacts characteristic of bicycle crashes.