Understanding Undergraduate Student Borrowing in China: A Qualitative Analysis

As China moved from elite to mass higher education, student borrowers as the product of state intervention have surged. Yet little attention has been paid to their voices. This study conducts reflexive thematic analysis with a qualitative inquiry into lived experiences of 41 current borrowers. A five-factor typology of debt attitudes yields a dynamic explanation of debt and repayment complexities. Students perceive borrowing as an investment in human and social capital. They are, however, cautious of consumer credit. Far from being a deterrent or added burden, educational indebtedness grants them a measure of freedom and autonomy in college. And they consider debt repayment manageable, mainly if a family safety net exists

Individual differences and related emotion-detection abilities in cross-race context

This item is only available electronically.The Dark Triad (DT) is a unified collection of three socially aversive personality traits: Machiavellianism, (subclinical) narcissism, and (subclinical) psychopathy. Although the DT is always coupled with negative social outcomes, evidence suggests that some aspects of its “darkness” provide a potential advantage for detecting emotions. This advantage has not been examined in a diverse sample. The present study aimed to investigate the association of DT traits with emotion detection abilities as measured through an emotion detection task. Given that the task was created from the CASMEII database which consisted of Chinese faces, it was also expected that the contact levels with the Chinese population would contribute to differentiating emotion detection performance. 170 participants who were from different ethnicities completed a set of online questionnaires. Results indicated that higher tendency towards primary psychopathy related to increased accuracy for judging disgust emotions. However, there was not any compelling evidence for the effect of exposure to the Chinese population on emotion judgement performance. The findings may imply that individuals with high levels of primary psychopathy have superior cognitive empathy, Emotional Intelligence and lie detection competencies, which is inconsistent with the vast majority of prior research. Keywords: Dark Triad, emotion detection, Chinese-contact levelsThesis (B.PsychSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Resonances and Fundamental Bounds in Wave Scattering

In this thesis, we develop a framework for analyzing light-matter interaction by resonances, explore power concentration limits in wave scattering, and discover fundamental bounds of quantum state controls via pulse engineering. We use quasinormal modes to develop an exact, ab initio generalized coupled-mode theory from Maxwell’s equations. This quasinormal coupled-mode theory, which we de- note “QCMT”, enables a direct, mode-based construction of scattering matrices without resorting to external solvers or data. We consider canonical scattering bodies, for which we show that a conventional coupled-mode theory model will necessarily be highly inaccurate, whereas QCMT exhibits near-perfect accuracy. We generalize classical brightness theorem to wave scattering, showing that power per scattering channel generalizes brightness, and obtaining power-concentration bounds for systems of arbitrary coherence for general linear wave scattering. The bounds motivate a concept of “wave ́etendue” as a measure of incoherence among the scattering-channel amplitudes and which is given by the rank of an appropriate density matrix. The bounds apply to nonreciprocal systems that are of increasing interest, and we demonstrate their applicability to maximal control in nanophotonics, for metasurfaces and waveguide junctions. Through inverse design, we discover metasurface elements operating near the theoretical limits. We show that an integral-equation-based formulation of conservation laws in quantum dynamics leads to a systematic framework for identifying fundamental limits to any quantum control scenario. We demonstrate the utility of our bounds in three scenarios – three-level driving, decoherence suppression, and maximum-fidelity gate implementations – and show that in each case our bounds are tight or nearly so. Global bounds complement local- optimization-based designs, illuminating performance levels that may be possible as well as those that cannot be surpassed

Monotonic, cyclic and post-cyclic shear behaviour of granular material under multi-directional simple shear

In most geotechnical applications, soil is subjected to complicated loading conditions. For example, during an earthquake, the soil can be liquefied by randomly oriented ground movements with different loading magnitudes. Currently, this complex in-situ loading conditions can only be duplicated in the multi-directional simple shear devices. With this kind of apparatus, more attentions have been paid on the study of how the multi-directional loading conditions and loading histories can affect the soil behaviour. To undertake a comprehensive investigation on the shear behaviour of granular material subjected to complex loading conditions, in this thesis, several multi-directional simple shear tests were performed by the Variable Direction Dynamic Cyclic Simple Shear (VDDCSS) system. In this testing system, two orthogonal shear actuators can be controlled independently to implement the shear stress in any direction on the horizontal plane. Through this apparatus, the uni- and multi-directional loading paths were conducted on the uniform-sized glass beads in monotonic, cyclic and post-cyclic tests. In the monotonic tests, the effects of relative density and effective vertical stress have been examined in the undrained and drained conditions. More importantly, in another series of tests, the specimens were subjected to two successive shear stresses, between which, the angle varies from 0o to 180o. The results show that the angle between these two shear stresses makes significant impacts on the shear strength, pore pressure buildup, volumetric strain and the level of non-coaxiality. In the cyclic tests, the specimens were cyclically sheared under the uni- and multi-directional loading paths. The results show that the liquefaction resistance is significantly influenced by the relative density, effective vertical stress, shear strain amplitude and loading path. To interpret the difference of liquefaction resistance under different loading paths, an energy dissipation theory is adopted in the discussion, and it is found that the dissipated energy to liquefy a specimen is independent of the loading path. In the post-cyclic tests, two main series of tests were conducted on the glass beads. In the first series of tests, the liquefied specimens were subjected to the undrained monotonic shearing after they were re-consolidated. The effect of the initial liquefaction loading history on the post-liquefaction settlement and shear behaviour have been studied under various relative densities. Conversely, in the second series of tests, the specimens were subjected to the first cyclic shear stress under different liquefaction degrees, loading paths and loading angles (for the uni-directional case). After re-consolidation, the specimens were then subjected to the second cyclic shear stress in the x-direction until liquefaction happened. The results show that the above-mentioned factors in the first cyclic shearing stage can considerably affect the settlement, post-liquefaction shear strength and post-cyclic liquefaction resistance of the tested material

Design of Video Teaching System Based on Virtual Reality Technology

With the progress of the times and the development of network technology, great changes have taken place in the mode of education and teaching, and the traditional mode of education and teaching has been unable to meet the current teaching situation and requirements. Under this background, many scholars have developed a variety of teaching models adapted to the background of the times, which has achieved good results. In order to realize the reform and innovation of teaching mode, this paper designs a film and television teaching system based on virtual reality technology. In the era of Internet of Things and big data, Internet of Things technology is used as support to realize the transmission and sharing of teaching information in film and television teaching system. In the research, data mining technology is used to collect relevant data of teaching resources and teaching information, and relevant algorithms in data mining are used to realize data processing. Experiment of film and television teaching system in different stages of education system and the application of film and television teaching theory courses, experiment courses for students and education development index are analyzed. According to the end of the experiment, the influence of results show that the film and television teaching system in the use of elementary school, junior high school, high school and university level are 25.32%, 31.44%, 18.46% and 47.76% respectively. The film and television teaching system plays a significant role in students’ experimental course scores. The use of the film and television teaching system has raised the development index of education and teaching in each stage of education from 1.12, 1.33, 1.47 and 1.36 to 2.14, 2.21, 2.36 and 2.44 respectively, indicating that the film and television teaching system has a certain promoting effect on the development of education and teaching

Assessing the Knowledge Structure of Information Systems Learners in Experience-Based Learning

The fundamental goal of this study was to investigate the effects of an experience-based learning environment on information systems students\u27 knowledge structure. The learning environment was structured in a way consistent with the problem solving approaches used by information systems experts. The focus of this paper is to report the assessment of the knowledge structure of the information systems learners in a self-managed and experience-based learning environment. The key issue here is whether information systems students can develop the necessary cognitive skills in such learning environment. To assess the knowledge structure of the learners, this study designed three research instruments that included a declarative-knowledge test, a problem-solving task, and a similarity-judgment task. The analysis results suggested that the learning outcome in this experience-based learning environment was very positive. The environment that imposed an expert-like organization both on information gathering and on problem solving activities resulted in improved problem-solving skills. The learners mastered the necessary declarative knowledge, as well as developed domain-specific basic skill and strategies

Essentialism and Self-Identity Construction in Toni Morrison’s “Sula”-Take Sula and Shadrack as an Example

From around the end of the First World War to the mid-1960s, as the voices of the exploited and oppressed black groups were drowned out by white supremacist ideas, black people generally suffered from racial discrimination, and the stereotypes brought about by social essentialism impact of impressions. The construction of identities of marginalized black groups becomes a matter of concern. For Toni Morrison’s novel “Sula”, the existing research has obtained the image analysis of the characters in “Sula”, the symbolic meaning in the novel, the construction of character identity, and the embodiment of traditional culture in “Sula”. However, few studies have combined essentialism and identity construction and Sula’s and Shadracket’s analyses. Therefore, this thesis explores the embodiment of essentialism in “Sula”, as well as Sula and Shadrack’s resistance to essentialism and self-identity construction and combines theoretical analysis and textual analysis. Sula used her unique and heterogeneous behavior to break through the shackles of social essentialism on black women. In contrast to most black women, she constructed her self-identity in a different way from most black women, which can be better understood using Plato’s “cave theory”. Shadrack created “World Suicide Day” to resist the uncertainty of death and the prejudice brought by social essentialism and used Sula as a “mirror” to re-construct his identity, which can be used in Lacan’s “mirror stage” theory to explain

Dos expresiones para la esperanza de una variable aleatoria

La definición de esperanza de una variable aleatoria en los textos clásicos es dife-rente a la definición que se da en un curso de probabilidad basado en la teoría de la medida. En este manuscrito se muestra por qué, efectivamente, estas dos definiciones coinciden.esperanza, variable aleatoria