Apology as aggression control: Its role in mediating appraisal of and response to harm.

Two studies examined the effects of an apology on a victim's aggression and explored the psychological mechanisms underlying such effects. In Study 1, female undergraduates were psychologically harmed and then received an apology by another female student. In Study 2, male undergraduates were asked to role play a victim in a hypothetical harm situation. Results indicate that when the harm-doers apologized, as opposed to when they did not, the victim-subjects refrained from severe aggression against them. Regression analyses suggested that such aggression-inhibitory effects of an apology were mediated by impression improvement, emotional mitigation, and reduction in desire for an apology within the victims. It was also found that when the harm was severe, such effects of an apology on aggression were attenuated. The more severe the harm is, the more extensive of an apology may be needed to alleviate the victim's anger and aggression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">In Situ</Emphasis> Study of Reduction Process of CuO Paste and Its Effect on Bondability of Cu-to-Cu Joints

A bonding method utilizing redox reactions of metallic oxide microparticles achieves metal-to-metal bonding in air, which can be alternative to lead-rich high-melting point solder. However, it is known that the degree of the reduction of metallic oxide microparticles have an influence on the joint strength using this bonding method. In this paper, the reduction behavior of CuO paste and its effect on Cu-to-Cu joints were investigated through simultaneous microstructure-related x-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry measurements. The CuO microparticles in the paste were gradually reduced to submicron Cu₂O particles at 210–250°C. Subsequently, Cu nanoparticles were generated instantaneously at 300–315°C. There was a marked difference in the strengths of the joints formed at 300°C and 350°C. Thus, the Cu nanoparticles play a critical role in sintering-based bonding using CuO paste. Furthermore, once the Cu nanoparticles have formed, the joint strength increases with higher bonding temperature (from 350°C to 500°C) and pressure (5–15 MPa), which can exceed the strength of Pb-5Sn solder at higher temperature and pressure.     

A new design of a linear local-feedback MOS transconductor for low frequency applications

For medical devices, low frequency and low power applications are required, and a transconductor which has a low transconductance is needed. A conventional current division scheme for the low transconductance wastes operating current. This paper proposes an improved local-feedback MOS transconductor operating in subthreshold region. The proposed transconductor is optimally designed using maximally flat approximation method, Newton-Raphson method, and Downhill simplex method. From the optimization, two optimum values are obtained. Characteristics of the proposed transconductor are confirmed by simulation. Transfer characteristics of the proposed transconductor are linear, and the power consumption of the proposed transconductor is 1/60 as compared with the presented transconductor using current division scheme. The CMRR is around 70 dB, and the THD is lower than ?55 dB under a condition of that the frequency of the sinusoidal input is 100 Hz. As a demonstration of an application, the proposed transconductor is applied to a low frequency second order Butterworth filter. A cutoff frequency of the filter is 100 Hz. Simulation results show validities and availability of the proposed transconductor.     

Unusual pKa of the carboxylate at the putative catalytic position of the thermophilic F1-ATPase beta subunit determined by 13C-NMR

Glutamic acid-190 in the beta subunit of F1-ATPase from thermophilic Bacillus PS-3 (TF1) was reported to be essential for the ATPase activity. The mutant TF1beta subunit in which Glu-190 had been substituted by cysteine was carboxymethylated with 13C-labeled monoiodoacetic acid. The pKa value of the carboxymethylene group at the 190 position was determined as 5.6 +/- 0.4 by 13C-NMR. On the basis of this value, the pKa of the carboxylate of Glu-190 of the TF1beta subunit was estimated to be 6.8 +/- 0.5. The unusually high pKa could play a role in the catalytic mechanism of F1-ATPase.     

Effects of visual cue and spatial distance on exitability in electronic negotiation

We examined the effects of the visual anonymity of self and spatial distance on exitability in electronic negotiation in a role-play experiment. Exitability is the psychological factor that causes one to perceive the negotiation as unstable. We predicted that the lack of visual information and the spread of spatial distance would reduce anticipation of retaliation, make the continuation norm less salient, and prompt to exit from the current negotiation. Visual anonymity was manipulated by two conditions (visual anonymity or non-anonymity conditions). Spatial distance was manipulated by two conditions (remote or close conditions). Forty-three students were assigned in one of these four conditions, and negotiated. The results showed both the visual anonymity and remote distance inhibited the activation of continuation norm, prompted to exit from the current negotiation.     

Overview of parallel processing research in Japan

This paper gives an overview of Japanese research and development efforts on the parallel processing architectures. Projects are categorized by their application domains. Following an introduction, general trends and some examples of research projects for each of the application domains such as artificial intelligence, numerical processing, and others like database, image, graphics, etc. are presented.     

Feature set aggregator: unsupervised representation learning of sets for their comparison

Unsupervised representation learning of unlabeled multimedia data is important yet challenging problem for their indexing, clustering, and retrieval. There have been many attempts to learn representation from a collection of unlabeled 2D images. In contrast, however, less attention has been paid to unsupervised representation learning for unordered sets of high-dimensional feature vectors, which are often used to describe multimedia data. One such example is set of local visual features to describe a 2D image. This paper proposes a novel algorithm called Feature Set Aggregator (FSA) for accurate and efficient comparison among sets of high-dimensional features. FSA learns representation, or embedding, of unordered feature sets via optimization using a combination of two training objectives, that are, set reconstruction and set embedding, carefully designed for set-to-set comparison. Experimental evaluation under three multimedia information retrieval scenarios using 3D shapes, 2D images, and text documents demonstrates efficacy as well as generality of the proposed algorithm.