Unpacking the role of self-esteem in career uncertainty: a self-determination perspective

The aim of this study is to explain why students with high self-esteem have lower career uncertainty than students with low self-esteem. Based on self-determination theory, students with high self-esteem would have higher efficacy in making decisions, which would encourage them to choose a major for self-concordance, such as interest and ability, and increase their course involvement. Both factors are assumed to be related to lower career uncertainty. Data from a national survey of the Taiwan Higher Education Database within the Survey Research Data Archive from juniors at 92 colleges and universities in Taiwan (N = 7418) were analyzed to examine the model. Results supported the proposed model by showing that students with high self-esteem had lower career uncertainty because they chose a major for self-concordant reasons and had a strong motivation to learn, both of which contribute to lower career uncertainty

Applications of diffraction theory to aeroacoustics

A review is given of the fundamentals of diffraction theory and the application of the theory to several problems of aircraft noise generation, propagation, and measurement. The general acoustic diffraction problem is defined and the governing equations set down. Diffraction phenomena are illustrated using the classical problem of the diffraction of a plane wave by a half-plane. Infinite series and geometric acoustic methods for solving diffraction problems are described. Four applications of diffraction theory are discussed: the selection of an appropriate shape for a microphone, the use of aircraft wings to shield the community from engine noise, the reflection of engine noise from an aircraft fuselage and the radiation of trailing edge noise

Prompting students' knowledge integration and ill-structured problem solving in a Web-based learning environment.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different types of question prompts on students' knowledge acquisition and ill-structured problem solving outcomes. Although there are consistent findings regarding the processes of knowledge integration in science, few studies have focused on supporting students' knowledge acquisition and problem solving in more ill-structured domains. Hence, this study explored the use of knowledge integration prompts and problem solving prompts to support students' knowledge acquisition and ill-structured problem solving, especially the processes of problem representation, developing and evaluating solutions, and monitoring and justifying a plan of action.In order to investigate how such integrated understandings can be promoted in a web-based learning environment, this research used a knowledge integration approach to teaching and learning that provided a framework for promoting the application of educational concepts to classroom problems. Educational measurement served as the educational context for the focal curriculum. The curriculum design incorporated knowledge integration prompts to help students integrate knowledge, and problem solving prompts to facilitate students' problem solving processes.Students need to apply knowledge to important issues every day. Therefore, designing school curricula that foster integration of knowledge and everyday problem solving becomes critical. Students must develop integrated understandings of principles, prior experience, and applicable knowledge in order to be effective and efficient problem solvers.The research design and assessment protocols included two phases of the curriculum---knowledge acquisition phase and problem solving phase---and four treatments---knowledge integration condition, problem solving condition, combination of knowledge integration and problem solving condition, and control condition. The web-based environment was tested with undergraduate pre-service teachers. Pretest-posttest and ill-structured problem solving outcomes were compared between the treatments. Results indicated that knowledge integration prompts promoted better knowledge acquisition than did problem solving prompts. However, knowledge integration prompts alone were not completely sufficient for ill-structured problem solving. In fact, the combination of knowledge integration and problem solving prompts helped students not only integrate but also apply knowledge of principles and concepts to real-world problems. These results have implications for designing curricula in ill-defined domains and for instructional designers seeking to integrate and promote the application of educational principles to real-world problems

Examining the Effect of Switching Costs to Operating System Switching Intention An Empirical Study

This study adopted the framework from the theory of the switching costs by Burnham et al., (2003) to discuss which customers’ switching costs will influence the switching intention of operating system. In the proposed model, financial switching costs, procedural switching costs, psychological and emotional costs directly influence switching intention of windows operation systems. This study collected 429 users from online questionnaire, conducted confirmatory factor analysis by structural equation modeling to verify the hypothesis with path analysis result. Results of the analysis showed that different types of switching costs have significantly and negative influence on customers’ switching intention of operating system such as economic risk costs, evaluation costs, learning costs, customers’ comfort and customers’ identification. The implications of this study are also discussed