From Character to Characteristics

Through my life experiences, the way my family raised me, and fostered my thoughts, I have developed a strong connection to my native language. Taiwan is a country where the traditional Chinese characters are still widely in use, alongside with Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore. In fact, traditional Chinese characters can carry specific meaning individually, or further create various meanings when used in combination, which is profound and intriguing. Focusing on the form and structure of Chinese characters and their relationship with literal meaning, I wanted to design and create furniture that brings together culture, family, and personal vision. As an international student living in the United States, the longer I stay, the stronger I feel a paradox between new adventure and homesickness for Taiwan. Until now, it has been two and a half years since I left my country. My desire to reunite with my family in Taiwan has never been stronger. Therefore, I chose the character “回” (return) as inspiration for my first piece as a starting point. Since Asians mostly highlight our family bond and the connection with home, the chosen characters would be strong representative symbols, which can precisely project my mindset. I would like to make a series of furniture that will represent my own interpretation of the meaning from characters. The composition or image of traditional Chinese characters is the first element utilized to create the basic look of my furniture pieces. The geometric forms and clean lines are the preferable style in my works, to show my interpretation of the characters in a simple way. The second element is its meaning, which is used to decide the function of the furniture. Not only do I focused on the meanings of the characters themselves, but also emphasized their connection. This could create intensive and strong connections among my nostalgic memories of home in order to create the whole picture of my personality. The connection between my own story and memory created a story-telling piece in order to express the characters’ form, the meaning and the culture of traditional Chinese character, and furthermore introduce my distinctive stories with people from other cultures as well

A Comparative Study for 2D and 3D Computer-aided Diagnosis Methods for Solitary Pulmonary Nodules

Many computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) methods, including 2D and 3D approaches, have been proposed for solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs). However, the detection and diagnosis of SPNs remain challenging in many clinical circumstances. One goal of this work is to investigate the relative diagnostic accuracy of 2D and 3D methods. An additional goal is to develop a two-stage approach that combines the simplicity of 2D and the accuracy of 3D methods. The experimental results show statistically significant differences between the diagnostic accuracy of 2D and 3D methods. The results also show that with a very minor drop in diagnostic performance the two-stage approach can significantly reduce the number of nodules needed to be processed by the 3D method, streamlining the computational demand

Defending Behavior of Peer Victimization in School and Cyber Context During Childhood and Adolescence: A Meta-Analytic Review of Individual and Peer-Relational Characteristics

Adolescent defending of peer victimization in the school and cyber context has received increased attention in developmental science and is an important component of antibullying interventions. However, the overall prevalence, and individual characteristics that correlate with defending in adolescence, have not been systematically and statistically reviewed. Framed in Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological theory, this meta-analytic review included 172 reports out of 155 studies of defending including 150,978 children and adolescent participants from 4 continents (i.e., North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia) to analyze two aspects: (1) the average proportion of defenders in the population and (2) associations between defending and individual and peer-relational correlates of defending in school and cyber contexts. Using mixed-effects modeling, our results confirmed prior findings of gender differences (favoring girls) and age differences (favoring younger children) in defending. We found positive correlations between defending and affective empathy, cognitive empathy, experiences of peer victimization, self-efficacy, popularity, and acceptance, and a negative correlation between defending and moral disengagement. We also found substantial heterogeneity in these effect sizes. The reporter of defending consistently moderated all mean effect sizes. Implications for prevention efforts and future research are discussed

A Comparative Study on Spin-Orbit Torque Efficiencies from W/ferromagnetic and W/ferrimagnetic Heterostructures

It has been shown that W in its resistive form possesses the largest spin-Hall ratio among all heavy transition metals, which makes it a good candidate for generating efficient dampinglike spin-orbit torque (DL-SOT) acting upon adjacent ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic (FM) layer. Here we provide a systematic study on the spin transport properties of W/FM magnetic heterostructures with the FM layer being ferromagnetic Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ or ferrimagnetic Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. The DL-SOT efficiency $|\xi_{DL}|$, which is characterized by a current-induced hysteresis loop shift method, is found to be correlated to the microstructure of W buffer layer in both W/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ and W/Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ systems. Maximum values of $|\xi_{DL}|\approx 0.144$ and $|\xi_{DL}|\approx 0.116$ are achieved when the W layer is partially amorphous in the W/Co$_{20}$Fe$_{60}$B$_{20}$ and W/Co$_{63}$Tb$_{37}$ heterostructures, respectively. Our results suggest that the spin Hall effect from resistive phase of W can be utilized to effectively control both ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic layers through a DL-SOT mechanism

Controlled Heterogeneous Nucleation and Growth of Germanium Quantum Dots on Nanopatterned Silicon Dioxide and Silicon Nitride Substrates

Controlled heterogeneous nucleation and growth of Ge quantum dots (QDs) are demonstrated on SiO_2/Si_3N_4 substrates by means of a novel fabrication process of thermally oxidizing nanopatterned SiGe layers. The otherwise random self-assembly process for QDs is shown to be strongly influenced by the nanopatterning in determining both the location and size of the QDs. Ostwald ripening processes are observed under further annealing at the oxidation temperature. Both nanopattern oxidation and Ostwald ripening offer additional mechanisms for lithography for controlling the size and placement of the QDs