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

Architectural Scene Reconstruction from Single or Multiple Uncalibrated Images

In this paper we present a system for the reconstruction of 3D models of architectural scenes from single or multiple uncalibrated images. The partial 3D model of a building is recovered from a single image using geometric constraints such as parallelism and orthogonality, which are likely to be found in most architectural scenes. The approximate corner positions of a building are selected interactively by a user and then further refined automatically using Hough transform. The relative depths of the corner points are calculated according to the perspective projection model. Partial 3D models recovered from different viewpoints are registered to a common coordinate system for integration. The 3D model registration process is carried out using modified ICP (iterative closest point) algorithm with the initial parameters provided by geometric constraints of the building. The integrated 3D model is then fitted with piecewise planar surfaces to generate a more geometrically consistent model. The acquired images are finally mapped onto the surface of the reconstructed 3D model to create a photo-realistic model. A working system which allows a user to interactively build a 3D model of an architectural scene from single or multiple images has been proposed and implemented

Effect of steam jet cooking on the destruction of corn starches

AbstractSteam jet cooking has been used for years to prepare aqueous starch dispersions for food application. The steam jet cooking generates high shear stress to starch. The objective of this research is to study the effect of shear stress on structure of corn starch granules by steam jet cooking. A laboratory scale steam jet cooker has been established with flow rate about 1L/min. Three kinds of corn starch, waxy, regular, and high amylose were used. Starch slurries (5% w/w) were cooked by steam jet cooker at temperature 100°C (SJ100), 120°C (SJ120) and 135°C (SJ135) compared with hot water boiling at 90°C 30min (HB). The insoluble particles of cooked starches were investigated by particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and damage starch assay kit. There was a significant decrease in percent yield of insoluble particles of cooked dispersions for all starches in the order HB > SJ100 > SJ120 > SJ 135.The data also showed that SJ100 has higher destruction than HB, although the temperature of heat treatment was similar. The particle size of cooked starches was much larger than uncooked starches, and the particle size of HB was larger than SJ100 for all starches. This may be due to the time of cooking, 30min for HB vs. a few sec for SJ100. Percentage damaged starch of cooked dispersions for all starches became higher with increasing of cooking temperature. Although, the time of heat treatment was much shorter for SJ100 than HB, the damaged starch was higher as well. Those date all revealed the effect of shear stress from steam cooking. On SEM observation, the damaged granules showed sponge like structure for the starch dispersions cooked by HB. The starches heated by steam jet cooking were fractured into small fragments

Seeing Through Things:Exploring the Design Space of Privacy-Aware Data-Enabled Objects

Increasing amounts of sensor-augmented research objects have been used in design research. We call these objects Data-Enabled Objects, which can be integrated into daily activities capturing data about people's detailed whereabouts, behaviours, and routines. These objects provide data perspectives on everyday life for contextual design research. However, data-enabled objects are still computational devices with limited privacy awareness and nuanced data sharing. To better design data-enabled objects, we explore privacy design spaces by inviting 18 teams of undergraduate design students to re-design the same type of sensor-enabled home research camera. We developed the Connected Peekaboo Toolkit (CPT) to support the design teams in designing, building, and directly deploying their prototypes in real home studies. We conducted Thematic Analysis to analyze their outcomes which led us to interpret that privacy is not just an obstacle but can be a driver by unfolding an exploration of possible design spaces for data-enabled objects.</p

Designing the Expressiveness of Point Lights for Bridging Human-IoT System Communications

In the last decade, the digital devices and intelligent systems are becoming popular in people’s everyday lives. Many machines could communicate and collaborate as a system to provide various services. However, they seldom provide sufficient feed forwards or feedbacks to help users understand current states and aware what it is about to act. In this study, we explored the possibilities of expressiveness with the point lights embedded on ubiquitous devices. By applying the findings from related works and animation principles, we created nine basic individual patterns and composed 12 designs of group behaviors. We then conducted a survey with 69 participants to rate their expressiveness regarding nine vocabularies of the human-system communication. The results show that single light behavior and the performative group light behavior could help to convey specific state information for intuitive communication. At the individual light level, for instance, the fade in light behavior can indicate changes in status; rapid blinking can indicate important information. At the group level, the two designs developed in this study, leading and simultaneous type also can initiate human interactions and represent the machine-to-machine conversations taken place in the system, respectively

Determination of dimethoxyphenethylamine derivatives in urine by deuterium labeled internal standards

The use of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) in forensic analysis is increasing. To exploit fully the capabilities of MS, labeled standards, that can be used to improve the performance of the quantitative analysis, and to increase accuracy and precision, are required. A series of deuterated internal standards, corresponding to the 2C-series of phenethylamine derivatives, including 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine-d6 (2C-B), 4-chloro-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine-d6 (2C-C), 4-iodo-2,5-dimethoxy-phe¬nethyl-amine-d6 (2C-I), 4-ethylthio-2,5-dimethoxy-phenethylamine-d6 (2C-T-2) and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-n-propylthiophenethylamine-d6 (2C-T-7), were synthesized. These deuterated compounds were used to analyze for the corresponding unlabeled compounds in urine. The analysis was performed using GC–MS, with the selected ion monitoring (SIM) technique, whereby good results were achieved