TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE OF VICKERS HARDNESS OF R-Fe AND La-Fe-Al AMORPHOUS ALLOYS

Temperature dependence of Vickers hardness of several kinds of R-Fe ( R : rare earth metal ) and La-Fe-Al amorphous alloys has been investigated. The decrement of Vickers hardness below the Curie temperature is steeper than that in the paramagnetic temperature range, owing to their large spontaneous volume magnetostriction. The curves exhibit a peak due to the crystallization, except for La-Fe amorphous alloys. Because La-Fe alloy system makes no alloys and compounds, its hardness is decreased drastically by crystallization. However, by addition of Al to La-Fe alloys, the temperature dependence is similar to that of other R-Fe alloy systems, accompanying the increase in the magnitude of hardness. No distinct softening due to the glass transition has been observed in the present amorphous alloys. In R-Fe amorphous alloys, the magnitude of hardness in the paramagnetic temperature range exhibits a systematic change in connection with the lanthanide contraction

A HRNet-based Rehabilitation Monitoring System

The rehabilitation treatment helps to heal minor sports and occupational injuries. In a traditional rehabilitation process, a therapist will assign certain actions to a patient to perform in between hospital visits, and it will rely on the patient to remember actions correctly and the schedule to perform them. Unfortunately, many patients forget to perform actions or fail to recall actions in detail. As a consequence, the rehabilitation treatment is hampered or, in the worst case, the patient may suffer from additional injury caused by performing incorrect actions. To resolve these issues, we propose a HRNet-based rehabilitation monitoring system, which can remind a patient when to perform the actions and display the actions for the patient to follow via the patient's smartphone. In addition, it helps the therapist to monitor the progress of the rehabilitation for the patient. Our system consists of an iOS app and several components at the server side. The app is in charge of displaying and collecting action videos. The server computes the similarity score between the therapist's actions and the patient's in the videos to keep track of the number of repetitions of each action. Theses stats will be shown to both of the patient and therapist. The extensive experiments show that the F1-Score of the similarity calculation is as high as 0.9 and the soft accuracy of the number of repetitions is higher than 90%

Technology-Enhanced Learning for Graduate Students: Exploring the Correlation of Media Richness and Creativity of Computer-Mediated Communication and Face-to-Face Communication

The objective of the research was to explore and compare the differences in potential creative thinking that media richness had on learners in creativity training through two different types of communication formats; computer-mediated communication, and face-to-face communication. The results indicated that the computer-mediated communication format performed better than the face-to-face in terms of the fluency, flexibility, and originality dimensions of creative thinking. The computer-mediated communication format also had a greater level of media richness perception (i.e., use of multiple cues, language diversity, and personal focus of the medium) than the face-to-face format. In terms of the combined effectiveness of computer-mediated communication, and face-to-face formats, the use of multiple cues, language variety of perception of media richness had direct effects on the fluency of creativity. There was also a positive correlation between the elaboration of creativity and the use of multiple cues, language variety, and personal focus of the medium in the perception of media richness. Furthermore, language variety was correlated with creativity and flexibility. The research findings highlighted the importance of the availability of immediate feedback on media richness, whereas creativity cognition should focus on the breadth and depth of the information, which contributes to enhancing the creativity of individuals or a group of employees

Applying a Comprehensive Action Determination Model to Examine the Recycling Behavior of Taipei City Residents

With the occurrence of rapid global economic growth concerns about waste and its related effects on the environment are on the rise. There has been an increasing focus towards sustainable development and waste recycling as part of environmental sustainability strategies, and the encouraging of recycling behavior has received considerable attention from various environmental stakeholders. While numerous studies have used grounded theories such as the theory of planned behaviors and the norm activation model to examine environmental behaviors, a lack of consideration of other important variables in these studies has been revealed. This study aimed to address this gap by adopting the comprehensive action determination model, which comprises a wider group of influencing variables related to norms, intentions, situations, and habits. This model was tested using structural equation modelling with a sample of 386 valid questionnaires collected from Taipei City residents in the domain of recycling behaviors. Results indicated that awareness had a positive influence on personal norms towards recycling behaviors; social norms had a positive influence on personal norms towards recycling behaviors; attitudes had a positive influence on recycling intentions; social norms had a positive influence on recycling intentions; personal norms had a positive influence on recycling intentions; perceived behavior control had a positive influence on recycling intentions; recycling intentions had a positive influence on recycling behavior; and recycling habits had a positive influence on recycling behavior. However, findings did not support the positive impact of perceived behavioral control on recycling behavior

Effects of Parental Involvement in a Preschool-Based Eye Health Intervention Regarding Children’s Screen Use in China

In this digital era, young children spend a considerable amount of time looking at telephone, tablet, computer and television screens. However, preventative eye health behavior education could help avoid and relieve asthenopia. The effects of parental influence on their children’s eye health behavior through the preschool eye health education intervention program were examined. The Health Belief Model was used to develop parental involvement strategy and eye health curriculum. The study was conducted in a large public preschool with five branches in Beijing, China. A total of 248 parent–child pairs participated in the baseline and follow-up surveys, of which 129 were in the intervention group and 119 were in the comparison group. The generalized estimating equation analysis results indicated that parental involvement in preschool-based eye health intervention on screen uses had positive influence on parents’ eye health knowledge, cues to action, and parenting efficacy. The intervention program also had positive effects on the increasing level of children’s eye health knowledge, beliefs, cues to action, self-efficacy, and behaviors. The results supported the implementation of a preschool-based eye health intervention program with parental involvement, which could potentially enhance children’s and parents’ eye health beliefs and practices

Women with endometriosis have higher comorbidities: Analysis of domestic data in Taiwan

AbstractEndometriosis, defined by the presence of viable extrauterine endometrial glands and stroma, can grow or bleed cyclically, and possesses characteristics including a destructive, invasive, and metastatic nature. Since endometriosis may result in pelvic inflammation, adhesion, chronic pain, and infertility, and can progress to biologically malignant tumors, it is a long-term major health issue in women of reproductive age. In this review, we analyze the Taiwan domestic research addressing associations between endometriosis and other diseases. Concerning malignant tumors, we identified four studies on the links between endometriosis and ovarian cancer, one on breast cancer, two on endometrial cancer, one on colorectal cancer, and one on other malignancies, as well as one on associations between endometriosis and irritable bowel syndrome, one on links with migraine headache, three on links with pelvic inflammatory diseases, four on links with infertility, four on links with obesity, four on links with chronic liver disease, four on links with rheumatoid arthritis, four on links with chronic renal disease, five on links with diabetes mellitus, and five on links with cardiovascular diseases (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, etc.). The data available to date support that women with endometriosis might be at risk of some chronic illnesses and certain malignancies, although we consider the evidence for some comorbidities to be of low quality, for example, the association between colon cancer and adenomyosis/endometriosis. We still believe that the risk of comorbidity might be higher in women with endometriosis than that we supposed before. More research is needed to determine whether women with endometriosis are really at risk of these comorbidities

Atomic Structures, Magnetovolume and Pressure Effects in Amorphous La(Fe_xAl_<1-x>)_<13> Alloys Consisting of Icosahedral Clusters

The atomic structures of amorphous La(Fe_xAl_)_ alloys have been investigated by x-ray diffraction, and the local ordering characterized by the icosahedral clusters has been confirmed. From the ^Fe Mossbauer spectra, it has been revealed that the local environment around Fe atoms in the amorphous La(Fe_Al_)_ alloy is very similar to that in the crystalline counterpart. Re-entrant spin-glass behavior has been observed in the concentration range where the antiferromagnetic order occurs in the crystalline state. The Curie temperature in the amorphous state decreases with increasing x and it is higher than the Neel and Curie temperatures in the crystalline state. The spin-wave stiffness constant in the amorphous state is extremely small, suggesting a magnetic instability. The amorphous RE(Fe_Al_x)_ alloys also exhibit re-entrant spin-glass behavior and the spin freezing temperature is hardly changed by replacing RE because there is no change in the Fe-Fe distance in the icosahedral clusters. A large thermal expansion anomaly has been observed in a wide temperature range. This anomaly is retained, even at high temperatures well above T_C. A significant ΔE effect has also been found in the temperature and field dependences of Young\u27s modulus. The temperature dependence of the forced-volume magnetostriction ∂ω/∂H exhibits a broad peak at the spin freezing temperature T_f and its divergent behavior at T_f is accounted for by the variable amplitude of the local magnetic moment in the itinerant spin glasses. The temperature dependence of the saturation magnetostriction λ_S of the ferromagnetic alloys is explained by the two-ion model, reflecting the peculiar amorphous structure consisting of icosahedral clusters. Poisson\u27s ratio determined from the surface phase velocities of the Rayleigh and Sezawa waves is very close to 1/3. The compressibility κ obtained from Brillouin scattering is significantly large. Various magnetovolume and pressure effects become remarkable with increasing Fe content

Crystallization Behavior of Fe in Fe

Structures of amorphous Fe 84 Nb 7 B 9 (FN7) and Fe 85 Nb 6 B 9 (FN6) alloys were investigated by high-energy X-ray diffraction. The structures of FN6 and FN7 contain a relatively large amount of bcc-Fe like clusters. This cluster size seems to grow larger for FN6 than for FN7. From the lattice parameters of Fe precipitates, the crystallization behavior of both alloys were discussed. The Fe precipitates contain supersaturated Nb and B. These solute atoms are removed from Fe by annealing at elevated temperature and stabilize the amorphous matrix. This appears to prevent the growth of Fe to maintain nano-scale Fe particles