Measurement of the ZZ production cross section and limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge couplings in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} =7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV using data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is presented. In a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.02fb-1, 12 events containing two Z boson candidates decaying to electrons and/or muons were observed. The expected background contribution is 0.3^{+0.9}_{-0.3} (stat) ^{+0.4}_{-0.3} (syst) events. The total cross section for on-shell ZZ production has been determined to be \sigma_{ZZ}_{tot}= 8.4^{+2.7}_{-2.3}(stat) ^{+0.4}_{-0.7}(syst)\pm 0.3 (lumi) pb$ and is compatible with the Standard Model expectation of 6.5^{+0.3}_{-0.2} pb calculated at the next-to-leading order in QCD. Limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings are derived.Comment: 8 pages, Proceedings of the DPF-2011 Conference, Providence, RI, August 8-13, 201

A Conceptual Design of a Mobile Healthcare Device - An Application of Three-stage QFD with ANP and TRIZ

[[abstract]]This research sets up a conceptual design of a future mobile or portable healthcare device using the quality function development (QFD) with the analytic network process (ANP) and the theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ). We propose a three-stage QFD in order to consider customers’ requirements, extend the whole design process, and calculate the priorities of the left-hand-side elements in the houses of quality (HOQ) by implanting ANP. Some contradictions at the roof of the second "house" are able to be overcome by TRIZ. Going through the integration of the three methods, the analysis results characterize the features and their priorities for the future mobile device. We believe that this conceptual design of the mobile healthcare device can provide a new direction to the healthcare industry.[[notice]]補正完畢[[journaltype]]國內[[ispeerreviewed]]Y[[booktype]]紙本[[countrycodes]]TW

When does One Weight Threats more? An Integration of Regulatory Focus Theory and Protection Motivation Theory

Protection motivation theory has been adopted to understand the driver of information security behaviors broadly. Based on theoretical arguments and empirical results, security behaviors are driven by individuals’ appraisal toward threats and coping. However, while most study focus on the impacts of independent variables on dependent variables, previous studies largely ignore a fact that, under certain conditions, individuals tend to weight the importance of threat (or coping) appraisal more. Given that the goal of security behavior is to protection information and individuals may be oriented to the goal differently, we argue that the magnitude of the impacts of threat and coping appraisal may be contingent on individuals’ goal orientation. Specifically, this study attempts to integrate protection motivation theory with regulatory focus theory and explore whether (1) threat appraisal is more critical when prevention focus in high and (2) coping appraisal generates more impact when promotion focus is high. By integrating protection motivation theory with regulatory focus theory and revealing the moderating roles of regulatory focus on protection motivations, we expect to contribute to protection motivation theory by showing the effects of threat and coping appraisal may be contingent on certain conditions

Privacy paradox or bargained-for-exchange : capturing the relationships among privacy concerns, privacy management, self-disclosure, and social capital

textThe dissertation seeks to bridge the gap between privacy and social capital on SNS use by bringing the essential elements of social networking, privacy concerns, privacy management, self-disclosure, and social capital together to examine their complex relationships and the daily challenges every SNS user faces. The major purposes of this dissertation were to revisit the privacy paradox phenomenon, update the current relationships among privacy concerns, self-disclosure, and social capital on Facebook, integrate these relationships into a quantitative model, and explore the role of privacy management in these relationships. The goal was realized by using Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk to test a theoretical model that used survey data from 522 respondents. The findings from the dissertation show the impact of the structural factor—Facebook social network intensity and diversity—and the impact of individuals’ self-disclosure on Facebook on their perceived bridging and bonding social capital. This dissertation employed various measurements of key variables to update the current status of the privacy paradox phenomenon—the disconnection between privacy concerns and self- disclosure on social media—and found the break of the traditional privacy paradox and the existence of the social privacy paradox. Findings also show that private information about personal information, thoughts, and ideas shared on Facebook become assets in using Facebook and accumulating social capital. Meanwhile, higher privacy concerns reduce the level of self-disclosure on Facebook. Therefore, privacy concerns become a barrier in Facebook use and in accumulating social capital within these networks. This dissertation further examined the mediating role of privacy management to solve the dilemma. Findings confirmed that privacy management is important in redirecting the relationships among privacy concerns, self-disclosure, and social capital. People who have higher privacy concerns tend to disclose fewer personal thoughts and ideas on Facebook and miss the opportunity to accumulate social capital. However, when they employ more privacy management strategies, they are more willing to self-disclose and thus accumulate more social capital on Facebook networks. Lastly, the proposed integrated model examined through SEM analysis confirms the delicate relationships among the social networking characteristics, privacy concerns, privacy management, self-disclosure, and social capital.Journalis

Understanding The Role Of Social Capital In Expertise Coordination In Information Systems Development (isd) Teams

Information system development (ISD) project is a knowledge-intensive teamwork process which requires members to coordinate their expertise to generate the final outcome. Breakdown or coordination and insufficient knowledge integration have been reported as critical factors which lead to ISD project failure. Most existing coordination literature focus on the effect of administrative coordination mechanisms toward project performance which hints that more efforts are needed to understand expertise coordination and explore ways to improve it. Addressing the above issues, two studies in this dissertation attempt to understand expertise coordination within the IS development team based on social capital perspective. The first study, based on intention-behavior literature, knowledge management research, and Gerwin\u27s (2004) coordination model, investigates relationships among willingness, competence, and actual expertise coordination. The relationships between expertise coordination and teamwork outcomes are also examined. The second study incorporates social capital theory and examines (1) dependencies among three dimensions of social capital and (2) linkage between social capital and expertise coordination. Data collected from more than five hundred information systems project team members was used to test the proposed hypotheses. The analysis results confirmed most of the hypotheses. This dissertation contributes to coordination, project management, and team mental model research through many perspectives. In each study, directions for management practice and future research are discussed

PROBABILITY-BASED SIMULATION OF 2-D VELOCITY DISTRIBUTION AND DISCHARGE ESTIMATION IN OPEN CHANNEL FLOW

A probability-based method is presented that can be used to simulate 2-D velocity distribution in rectangular open channels and to estimate the flow discharge. The method is based on Chiu's velocity distribution equation. A technique for estimating a parameter of 2-D velocity equation has been developed, by which the 2-D velocity distribution in rectangular open channels can be simulated by using one or several velocity samples, or even without using any velocity data. The present study also developed an efficient method of discharge estimation in rivers, which is applicable regardless of whether flow is steady or unsteady. It only requires a quick velocity sampling. The relation between the surface velocity and the vertical mean velocity has been studied. It can be used for developing a non-contact method of discharge measurement.Under the same framework of analysis, a new slope-area method has been developed to determine the flow discharge. It can reduce errors due to the uncertainties in Manning's n and the energy coefficient that exist in the widely-used slope-area method

Visual Graphic Knowledge Management Methodology

As computer technology evolves, graphic workstations are becoming more popular. They support more friendly user interfaces than do conventional terminals. The better user interfaces require more effort to develop. Therefore, many user interface (UI) design systems have been developed to facilitate the creation of modern user interfaces, but not very successfully. Many of them either provide limited features or are difficult to use. Besides, these UI design systems are actually like black boxes to their users because the underlying technology is opaque; their users cannot learn how to utilize the underlying window systems through user interface design sessions. In a sense, these systems inherently prevent the users from updating or modifying them according to their specific needs. To solve the deficiencies, a new design methodology has been invented, which is composed of three major components: visual graphic knowledge representation, automatic knowledge reuse, and automatic knowledge retrieval. In the visual graphic knowledge representation, the knowledge engineers apply the visual graphic knowledge base technology (67) (68) to preserve the domain knowledge in a set of hierarchical visual knowledge graphs, e.g. the visual graphic knowledge base. These graphs later provide knowledge base users (application designers) the dynamic visual guidance, corresponding to the progress of the design process, in the automatic knowledge reuse session. In addition to the dynamic visual guidance, the knowledge reuse process is facilitated by automatically assembling the preserved knowledge fetched from the visual graphic knowledge base. The result of the knowledge reuse is inherently represented by objects and links, which form a visual specification graph in contrast to the visual knowledge graph. This visual specification graph can be manually organized into a set of hierarchical visual specification graphs. The knowledge base users can further adapt the original knowledge base to meet the individual needs after they become familiar with the underlying window through using the knowledge base. Afterwards, the automatic knowledge retrieval is applied to automate the composition of the source code which is also retrieved from the visual graphic knowledge base. The knowledge base user then can compile and run the composed source code to yield an interactive interface

Treatment of zinc crusts by vacuum distillation

The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibility of obtaining reasonably pure silver from the zinc crusts by vacuum distillation in one step. The effect of temperature, pressure, particle size, and time of distillation will be determined. The behavior of other constituents in the crusts are also to be studied --Introduction, page 5

An improved k-epsilon model for near wall turbulence

An improved k-epsilon model for low Reynolds number turbulence near a wall is presented. In the first part of this work, the near-wall asymptotic behavior of the eddy viscosity and the pressure transport term in the turbulent kinetic energy equation are analyzed. Based on these analyses, a modified eddy viscosity model with the correct near-wall behavior is suggested, and a model for the pressure transport term in the k-equation is proposed. In addition, a modeled dissipation rate equation is reformulated, and a boundary condition for the dissipation rate is suggested. In the second part of the work, one of the deficiencies of the existing k-epsilon models, namely, the wall distance dependency of the equations and the damping functions, is examined. An improved model that does not depend on any wall distance is introduced. Fully developed turbulent channel flows and turbulent boundary layers over a flat plate are studied as validations for the proposed new models. Numerical results obtained from the present and other previous k-epsilon models are compared with data from direct numerical simulation. The results show that the present k-epsilon model, with added robustness, performs as well as or better than other existing models in predicting the behavior of near-wall turbulence