Semantic categorization of digital home photo using photographic region templates

In this paper, a semantic categorization method in generic home photos is proposed. In recent years, the semantic categorization of image has been a challenge due to the proliferation of digital home photos. Our approach is to detect semantically meaningful concepts contained in a photo. The proposed method incorporates an intermediate level of concepts, called local concept, so that it catches well semantic meaning of local regions of image as bridging the semantic gap of the low-level features and high-level category concepts. To detect the local concepts from the home photo, region segmentation by photographic region template and concept merging is also proposed. The efficacy of the proposed semantic categorization method was demonstrated with 3828 general home photos. The experiment results showed the proposed categorization method would be useful to detect multiple semantic meaning of the home photos.     

The diffusion of moisture in sorbent solids part II. activated alumina

Ordinary and thermal diffusion of moisture in activated alumina are investigated using a new diffusion cell design and scheme of analysis reported earlier. The specific form of the mass flux equation has a pronounced effect on the magnitude of the associated thermal diffusion ratio. In the case of activated alumina-moist air, if a partial pressure gradient is used, then the thermal diffusion term is small if not zero.Free, Knudsen and surface diffusion all play a part in the diffusion through activated alumina. However, surface diffusion makes the major contribution and for this reason the model in this case can be simplified to a two parameter surface model.The activation energy for surface diffusion is constant and is approximately equal to the mean isosteric heat of absorption. In addition, mean pore radius, turtuosity, and other physical constants are computed from the least square fit of experimental data. Furthermore, the model is theoretically consistent over the entire concentration range (0≦ C_A ≦ C_Asat).A new fact about activated alumina (Grade F1) it that it does not transfer moisture in a nonisothermal condition so long as the partial pressures of moisture on the two sides of the pellet are the same. There appears to be no previous report of this fact in the periodical literature.     

Associations among Family Relationships, Antisocial Peers, and Adolescents' Externalizing Behaviors: Gender and Family Type Differences

This study investigated the relations among parenting, sibling relationship, peer group, and adolescent externalizing behaviors. With data obtained from a sample of 341 male and 313 female adolescents (M age = 14.4 years) and their parents and siblings from nonstepfamilies and stepfather families, cross-sectional analyses supported the hypothesis that the contributions of parental negativity, parental monitoring, and sibling negativity to adolescents' externalizing behaviors would operate directly and also indirectly through deviant peer associations. The findings of multigroup comparison analyses suggested that the relationships between family and peer correlates and adolescent externalizing behaviors vary as a function of family type and adolescent gender.     

Children's Evaluations of Decision-Making Procedures in Peer, Family, and School Contexts

Children's evaluations of decision-making procedures were examined in applications in different social contexts. Seventy-two children evenly divided into three grade levels (grades 1 – 2, 3 – 4, 5 – 6) were administered a structured interview requiring them to evaluate three decision-making procedures (consensus, majority rule, and authority-based) embedded in three social contexts (peer group, family, and school classroom) and to select the most appropriate decision-making procedure for two specific decisions: one expected to pull for procedures emphasizing children's autonomous decision making, and one expected to pull for adult authority. Judgments of decision-making procedures at all grade levels did not show a heteronomous acceptance of adult authority but rather were influenced by social context and type of decision. In general, consensus was preferred in peer and family contexts and authority-based procedures were preferred for school decisions about curriculum. Older children were more likely than younger children to consider how children's limited knowledge and competence may constrain their autonomous decision making.     

Analysis of student’s responses to contradictory results obtained by simple observation or controlling variables

This study investigated students’ responses to presentations of experimental results that conflicted with their preconceptions regarding electric circuits, and how those responses varied according to the type of inquiry skills required to obtain the results. One hundred and twenty students of both sexes were randomly selected from a science high school in Korea. They were questioned about their preconceptions regarding an electric circuit and forty-two students with relevant misconceptions were selected. The students were randomly assigned to two groups, and presented with one of two sheets of paper presenting results obtained by a fictional investigator. The first group was presented with results that were obtained by simple observation and asked for their evaluation of them. The second group was presented with a set of results that were obtained by controlling variables, and asked to draw a conclusion and to evaluate it. Students’ responses were classified into two categories. Some students rejected their own preconceptions and introduced a new explanatory model when contradictory results were presented, and others denied the results for the simple reason that they conflicted with their preconceptions, or only modified a protective belt without changing their core of preconceptions. We found that this distribution of responses varied considerably by inquiry skill type. For the results obtained by controlling variables, almost all students accepted them and changed their preconceptions, but for the results obtained by simple observation, fifty-five percent of students preserved their own preconceptions by denying the contradictory results or modifying the protective belt.     

ORGANIZATIONAL QUALITY: An Examination of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Framework

One of the major obstacles to empiricalinvestigations of quality in organizations is thedifficulty in defining precisely what quality is. Onedefining framework that is widely accepted in for-profitorganizations is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award(MBNQA) framework. This study examines the validity ofthe proposed relationships among the MBNQA dimensionsusing data from higher education. The empirical results help identify a modified model that hasimplications for managing quality improvementinitiatives.     

韩国教育模式的变革与发展

本文是对60年来韩国教育量的增长和质的提高及其与经济关系的概述,并围绕人力资源开发对先前的研究进行综合,分析韩国教育发展和变革的独特模式.文章首先对韩国过去六十年间教育政策变革和改革进行概述,进而对韩国教育质和量的关系及特点进行概括,最后对教育对人力资源开发和经济发展的贡献的研究进行综述.     

Prenatal Maternal Stress,Child Cortical Thickness,and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Prenatal maternal stress predicts subsequent elevations in youth depressive symptoms, but the neural processes associated with these links are unclear. This study evaluated whether prenatal maternal stress is associated with child brain development, and adolescent depressive symptoms using a prospective design with 74 mother child pairs (40 boys). Maternal stress was assessed during pregnancy, child cortical thickness at age 7, and depressive symptoms at age 12. Prenatal maternal stress was associated with less cortical thickness primarily in frontal and temporal regions and with elevated depressive symptoms; child cortical thickness additionally correlated with adolescent depressive symptoms. The observed associations are consistent with the possibility that cortical thickness in superior frontal regions links associations between prenatal maternal stress and adolescent depressive symptoms.     

Classification Consistency and Accuracy With Atypical Score Distributions

The current study aims to evaluate the performance of three non-IRT procedures (i.e., normal approximation, Livingston-Lewis, and compound multinomial) for estimating classification indices when the observed score distribution shows atypical patterns: (a) bimodality, (b) structural (i.e., systematic) bumpiness, or (c) structural zeros (i.e., no frequencies). Under a bimodal distribution, the normal approximation procedure produced substantially large bias. For a distribution with structural bumpiness, the compound multinomial procedure tended to introduce larger bias. Under a distribution with structural zeroes, the relative performance of selected estimation procedures depended on cut score location and the sample-size conditions. In general, the differences in estimation errors among the three procedures were not substantially large.