Showing papers by "San Jose State University published in 2000"

Lead-free Solders in Microelectronics

Abstract: Practically all microelectronic assemblies in use today utilize Pb–Sn solders for interconnection. With the advent of chip scale packaging technologies, the usage of solder connections has increased. The most widely used Pb–Sn solder has the eutectic composition. Emerging environmental regulations worldwide, most notably in Europe and Japan, have targeted the elimination of Pb usage in electronic assemblies, due to the inherent toxicity of Pb. This has made the search for suitable “Pb-free” solders an important issue for microelectronics assembly. Approximately 70 Pb-free solder alloy compositions have been proposed thus far. There is a general lack of engineering information, and there is also significant disparity in the information available on these alloys. The issues involved can be divided into two broad categories: manufacturing and reliability/performance. A major factor affecting alloy selection is the melting point of the alloy, since this will have a major impact on the other polymeric materials used in microelectronic assembly and encapsulation. Other important manufacturing issues are cost, availability, and wetting characteristics. Reliability related properties include mechanical strength, fatigue resistance, coefficient of thermal expansion and intermetallic compound formation. The data available in the open literature have been reviewed and are summarized in this paper. Where data were not available, such as for corrosion and oxidation resistance, chemical thermodynamics was used to develop this information. While a formal alloy selection decision analysis methodology has not been developed, less formal approaches indicate that Sn-rich alloys will be the Pb-free solder alloys of choice, with three to four alloys being identified for each of the different applications. Research on this topic continues at the present time at a vigorous pace, in view of the imminence of the issue.

Transitions into Teaching: Learning to Teach Writing in Teacher Education and Beyond

Abstract: This longitudinal study followed 10 beginning teachers from their last year of preservice education into their first 3 years of full-time teaching. Using sociocultural theory, we describe how these teachers appropriated a set of pedagogical tools for teaching writing. Data sources included approximately 5 interviews and at least 5 classroom observations a year, as well as observations and interviews with cooperating teachers, supervisors, and mentor teachers. The analysis suggests that teachers drew on pedagogical tools introduced during teacher education to develop their classroom practice. Conceptual tools that were buttressed with practical strategies proved to be most influential. The settings in which teachers taught also shaped teachers' developing understanding and practice. Finally, pedagogical tools developed during teacher education were even more evident during the teachers' 2nd year of teaching, as they tried to approximate their goal of good language arts instruction. The results of this stud...

Rough set methods and applications: new developments in knowledge discovery in information systems

Abstract: 1. Introduction.- Introducing the Book.- 1. A Rough Set Perspective on Knowledge Discovery in Information Systems: An Essay on the Topic of the Book.- 2. Methods and Applications: Reducts, Similarity, Mereology.- 2. Rough Set Algorithms in Classification Problem.- 3. Rough Mereology in Information Systems. A Case Study: Qualitative Spatial Reasoning.- 4. Knowledge Discovery by Application of Rough Set Models.- 5. Various Approaches to Reasoning with Frequency Based Decision Reducts: A Survey.- 3. Methods and Applications: Regular Pattern Extraction, Concurrency.- 6. Regularity Analysis and its Applications in Data Mining.- 7. Rough Set Methods for the Synthesis and Analysis of Concurrent Processes.- 4. Methods and Applications: Algebraic and Statistical Aspects, Conflicts, Incompleteness.- 8. Conflict Analysis.- 9. Logical and Algebraic Techniques for Rough Set Data Analysis.- 10. Statistical Techniques for Rough Set Data Analysis.- 11. Data Mining in Incomplete Information Systems from Rough Set Perspective.- 5. Afterword.- 12. Rough Sets and Rough Logic: A KDD Perspective.- Appendix: Selected Bibliofgraphy on Rough Sets.

National Culture, Networks, and Individual Influence in a Multinational MAnagement Team

Abstract: Individual influence is thought to shape team performance. However, empirical studies of its potential determinants in multicultural teams, including national culture, are lacking. A network study ...

Accountability and automation bias

Abstract: Although generally introduced to guard against human error, automated devices can fundamentally change how people approach their work, which in turn can lead to new and different kinds of error. The present study explored the extent to which errors of omission (failures to respond to system irregularities or events because automated devices fail to detect or indicate them) and commission (when people follow an automated directive despite contradictory information from other more reliable sources of information because they either fail to check or discount that information) can be reduced under conditions of social accountability. Results indicated that making participants accountable for either their overall performance or their decision accuracy led to lower rates of “automation bias”. Errors of omission proved to be the result of cognitive vigilance decrements, whereas errors of commission proved to be the result of a combination of a failure to take into account information and a belief in the superior judgement of automated aids.

Data Mining and Machine Oriented Modeling: A Granular Computing Approach

Abstract: From the processing point of view, data mining is machine derivation of interesting properties (to human) from the stored data. Hence, the notion of machine oriented data modeling is explored: An attribute value, in a relational model, is a meaningful label (a property) of a set of entities (granule). A model using these granules themselves as attribute values (their bit patterns or lists of members) is called a machine oriented data model. The model provides a good database compaction and data mining environment. For moderate size databases, finding association rules, decision rules, and etc., can be reduced to easy computation of i>set theoretical operations of granules. In the second part, these notions are extended to real world objects, where the universe is granulated (clustered) into granules by binary relations. Data modeling and mining with such additional semantics are formulated and investigated. In such models, data mining is essentially a machine “calculus” of granules-granular computing.

Quantifying denitrification and its effect on ozone recovery

Abstract: Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite observations indicate that extensive denitrification without significant dehydration currently occurs only in the Antarctic during mid to late June. The fact that denitrification occurs in a relatively warm month in the Antarctic raises concern about the likelihood of its occurrence and associated effects on ozone recovery in a colder and possibly more humid future Arctic lower stratosphere. Polar stratospheric cloud lifetimes required for Arctic denitrification to occur in the future are presented and contrasted against the current Antarctic cloud lifetimes. Model calculations show that widespread severe denitrification could enhance future Arctic ozone loss by up to 30%.

Business-to-business e-commerce frameworks

Abstract: Electronic commerce lets people purchase goods and exchange information on business transactions online. Although the Internet's role as a business channel is a fairly recent phenomenon, its impact, financial and otherwise, has been substantially greater than that of other business channels which have been in existence for several decades. The authors believe that e-commerce gives companies improved efficiency and reliability of business processes through transaction automation. There are two major types of e-commerce: business to consumer (B2C), in which consumers purchase products and services from businesses, and business to business (B2B), in which businesses buy and sell among themselves. B2B transactions are a growing segment of the e-commerce market. This article analyzes and compares popular B2B frameworks that attempt to address such issues as interoperability and security between enterprises transacting business over the Internet.

Rehabilitation as Rhetoric: The Ideal of Reformation in Contemporary Parole Discourse and Practices

Abstract: This article reports on a set of findings from an ethnographic research project conducted in a parole field office in central California, specifically addressing how the notion of rehabilitation is expressed in parole discourse and practices. It appears that while the agency (and its field agents) still espouse the validity of normalization and reformative goals in this arm of corrections, the resources and commitment to carry out those aims are in short supply. Consequently, agency actors appear to have constructed the parolee subject as one who is dispositionally flawed, and who is ultimately responsible for his own improvement. The findings are discussed in relation to Simon's (1993) analysis of the agency's struggle to construct a plausible account of parole's purpose in the face of shifting structural, political, and institutional demands.

Discrimination and instructional comprehension: guided discretion, racial bias, and the death penalty.

Abstract: This study links two previously unrelated lines of research: the lack of comprehension of capital penalty-phase jury instructions and discriminatory death sentencing. Jury-eligible subjects were randomly assigned to view one of four versions of a simulated capital penalty trial in which the race of defendant (Black or White) and the race of victim (Black or White) were varied orthogonally. Dependent measures included a sentencing verdict (life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty), ratings of penalty phase evidence, and a test of instructional comprehension. Results indicated that instructional comprehension was poor overall and that, although Black defendants were treated only slightly more punitively than White defendants in general, discriminatory effects were concentrated among participants whose comprehension was poorest. In addition, the use of penalty phase evidence differed as a function of race of defendant and whether the participant sentenced the defendant to life or death. The study suggest that racially biased and capricious death sentencing may be in part caused or exacerbated by the inability to comprehend penalty phase instructions.

Extending the Theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Through a Community Dialogue Process

Abstract: CMM is a communication theory that has most often been used as an interpretive heuristic in interpersonal communication contexts. Within the past 5 years, however, CMM has guided the work of the Public Dialogue Consortium, a not-for-profit organization involved in a multiyear, citywide collaborative community action project. This project has extended CMM from an interpretive to a practical theory and from interpersonal to public contexts. This essay describes the coevolution of the theory and practices that occurred in that project, strongly confirming the utility of treating communication as the primary social process-CMM's central thesis. Six other CMM concepts, including coordination, forms of communication, episode, logical force, person position, and contextual reconstruction, were also significantly elaborated. Appropriately for a practical theory (Cronen, 1995a, p. 231), the extensions of CMM include both new forms of practice and additions and refinements to its grammar for discursive and conversational practices.

Quantum Probability from Decision Theory

Abstract: In a recent paper, Deutsch [1] claims to derive the “probabilistic predictions of quantum theory” from the “non-probabilistic axioms of quantum theory” and the “non-probabilistic part of classical decision theory.” We show that his derivation fails because it includes hidden probabilistic assumptions.

Human Resource Strategy and Career Mobility in Professional Service Firms: A Test of an Options-Based Model

Abstract: This study provides a partial test of our options-based model of career mobility in professional service firms (Malos & Campion, 1995). After clustering a sample of 117 high-grossing U.S. law firms...

Visual search in complex displays: factors affecting conflict detection by air traffic controllers

Abstract: Recent free flight proposals to relax airspace constraints and give greater autonomy to aircraft have raised concerns about their impact on controller performance. Relaxing route and altitude restrictions would reduce the regularity of traffic through individual sectors, possibly impairing controller situation awareness. We examined the impact of this reduced regularity in four visual search experiments that tested controllers' detection of traffic conflicts in the four conditions created by factorial manipulation of fixed routes (present vs. absent) and altitude restrictions (present vs. absent). These four conditions were tested under varying levels of traffic load and conflict geometry (conflict time and conflict angle). Traffic load and conflict geometry showed strong and consistent effects in all experiments. Color coding altitude also substantially improved detection times. In contrast, removing altitude restrictions had only a small negative impact, and removing route restrictions had virtually no negative impact. In some cases conflict detection was actually better without fixed routes. The implications and limitations of these results for the feasibility of free flight are discussed. Actual or potential applications include providing guidance in the selection of free flight operational concepts. Language: en

Physician beliefs about victims of spouse abuse and about the physician role.

Abstract: Our purpose was to measure the beliefs of physicians about victims of spouse abuse and to examine factors related to holding positive (e.g., supportive) and negative beliefs about providing services to victims of domestic violence. This was a total site sample of 150 physicians (76 responded; RR 51%), surveyed at one time, practicing in a large general hospital and the surrounding urban/periurban area. Four specialities are represented: emergency medicine, family practice, obstetrics-gynecology, and psychiatry. Three aspects of beliefs are measured: beliefs toward physician role in assisting victims of spouse abuse, beliefs about victims of spouse abuse, and beliefs about resources available to physicians to assist victims of spouse abuse. Almost all (97%) physicians believe it is part of their role to assist victims of domestic violence. Almost one third (30%) hold victim-blaming attitudes toward victims of spouse abuse, and the majority (70%) do not believe that they have the resources available to them to assist victims of domestic violence. Being female, younger, practicing obstetrics-gynecology, and having fewer years in practice are all significantly related to holding supportive (positive) beliefs. The majority of negative beliefs held are about resource availability. Hence, training programs may need to be developed locally for physicians and tailored to individual community characteristics. Training programs should also emphasize the importance of understanding the victims of spouse abuse and of not blaming the victims for the violence.

Coming Out to Families in a Multicultural Context

Abstract: This article examines how young gay men disclose their sexual identity to family members and how their family members respond to this disclosure. Qualitative data were collected from a nonrandom sample of 57 African-, European-, Mexican-, and Vietnamese-American gay males, ages 18 to 24. Findings revealed similarities across racial and ethnic groups in how these young gay men came out to family members and the responses they received after their initial self-disclosure. Implications for practice are discussed.

Service‐driven global supply chains

Abstract: Value‐added services expand manufacturing organizations’ ability to compete beyond traditional measures of manufacturing competitiveness such as cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery. This concept of expanding the roles of factories to include service has received considerable attention and wide acceptance among both researchers and practitioners. For example, recent empirical studies have demonstrated that manufacturing performance, particularly delivery performance can be enhanced through expanded service roles that focus on effective information flows within the company and to external customers. Despite such benefits, the scope of analysis has been limited to individual manufacturing organizations. Given the realities of global competition, practitioners require knowledge that extends beyond individual organizations. The domain of their problems includes the complexities of interactions with multiple stakeholders along global supply chains. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to extend the concept of the service factory to global supply chains. Specifically, the approach will be to provide a conceptualization of the role of service in global supply chain management that can be used as a starting point for discussion and further research in this area. We provide several propositions and conclude with implications for both researchers and practitioners.

On-site to on-line: Barriers to the use of computers for continuing education

Abstract: Background: Continuing education/continuing medical education (CE/CME) programs that adopt self-directed, computer-based instruction formats via the Internet or CD-ROM can ease the demands placed on clinicians who are required by licensing boards to accumulate CE/CME credits as part of their career-long learning. Despite the benefits and availability of computer-based instruction, on-site programs still dominate current CE/CME delivery modes. In order to increase the use of computer-based CE/CME programs, it is important to identify the barriers that inhibit their use. Method: A survey was conducted to assess the practices, preferences, and barriers to use of CE/CME delivery methods among physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in Nevada. Results: Of 3,213 surveys sent, 1,120 were completed and returned for an overall response rate of 35%. In-person conferences (93%) and print-based methods (66%) were the most frequently reported methods of acquiring CE/CME. The majority of respondents had access to computer-based technologies. Respondents with more years in clinical practice were less likely to have access to or to use computer-based technologies. The top three preferred CE/CME delivery modes, in rank order, were in-person conferences, print-based self-study, and CD-ROM. The least preferred method of receiving CE/CME was interactive audioconference (telephone conference calls). “Not knowing how” was the most frequently reported reason for not using the Internet for computer-based training and the second most frequent reason for not using a CD-ROM. Implications: Program planners may wish to offer training in new technologies during on-site conferences, provide CD-ROMs as take-home instructional materials, or promote technology awareness in other ways to help clinicians prepare for changes in the electronic delivery of health care and education.

Raccoon Roundworm (Baylisascaris procyonis) Encephalitis: Case Report and Field Investigation

Abstract: Baylisascaris procyonis is a common and widespread parasite of raccoons in the United States and Canada. With large raccoon populations occurring in many areas, the potential risk of human infection with B procyonis is high. We report a case of severe raccoon roundworm (B procyonis) encephalitis in a young child to illustrate the unique clinical, diagnostic, and treatment aspects, as well as public health concerns of B procyonis infection. Acute and convalescent serum and cerebrospinal fluid samples from the patient were tested for antibodies against B procyonis to assist in documenting infection. An extensive field survey of the patient's residence and the surrounding community was performed to investigate raccoon abundance and to determine the extent of raccoon fecal contamination and B procyonis eggs in the environment. The patient evidenced serologic conversion, and the field investigation demonstrated a raccoon population far in excess of anything previously reported. There was abundant evidence of B procyonis eggs associated with numerous sites of raccoon defecation around the patient's residence and elsewhere in the community. Because B procyonis can produce such severe central nervous system disease in young children, it is important that pediatricians are familiar with this infection. The public should be made aware of the hazards associated with raccoons and B procyonis to hopefully prevent future cases of B procyonis infection.

Visual motion integration for perception and pursuit

Abstract: To examine the relationship between visual motion processing for perception and pursuit, we measured the pursuit eye-movement and perceptual responses to the same complex-motion stimuli. We show that humans can both perceive and pursue the motion of line-figure objects, even when partial occlusion makes the resulting image motion vastly different from the underlying object motion. Our results show that both perception and pursuit can perform largely accurate motion integration, i.e. the selective combination of local motion signals across the visual field to derive global object motion. Furthermore, because we manipulated perceived motion while keeping image motion identical, the observed parallel changes in perception and pursuit show that the motion signals driving steady-state pursuit and perception are linked. These findings disprove current pursuit models whose control strategy is to minimize retinal image motion, and suggest a new framework for the interplay between visual cortex and cerebellum in visuomotor control.

Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of English Weather, 1650-1820

Abstract: From the time of Aristotle until the late 18th century, meteorology meant the study of "meteors" - spectacular objects in the skies beneath the moon, which included everything from shooting stars to hailstorms. In "Reading the Skies", Vladimir Jankovic traces the history of this meteorological tradition in Enlightenment Britain, examining its scientific and cultural significance. He interweaves classical traditions, folk/popular beliefs and practices, and the increasingly quantitative approaches of urban university men to understanding the wonders of the skies. He places special emphasis on the role that detailed meteorological observations played in natural history and chorography, or local geography; in religious and political debates; and in agriculture. Drawing on a number of archival sources, including correspondence and weather diaries, as well as contemporary pamphlets, tracts, and other printed sources reporting prodigious phenomena in the skies, this book should interest historians of science, Britain, and the environment.

Hybrid dendritic–linear graft copolymers: Steric considerations in “coupling to” approach

Abstract: A “coupling to” approach was developed for the synthesis of hybrid dendritic–linear block copolymers. Frechet-type polyether dendrons were prepared by the convergent growth approach and coupled with well-defined functionalized polystyrene backbones prepared by living free radical procedures. The subtle interplay between the degree of functionalization present in the backbone and the size of the dendritic fragment led to incomplete reactions as steric crowding along the backbone increased. This resulted in globular hybrid macromolecules instead of the extended rods typically formed from the polymerization of dendritic macromonomers. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 1033–1044, 2000

The push to make software engineering respectable

Abstract: A recognized engineering profession must have an established body of knowledge and skill that its practitioners understand and use consistently. After 30 years, there is still a wide gap between the best and the typical software engineering practices. To close this gap, we need a deeper partnership among industry, academia, and professional societies. We have spent some time considering the reasons for SE's immaturity. All of us are heavily involved in both industry and academia and have been active in professional societies that aim to promote SE as a profession. Promotion efforts are by no means limited to the US, but because our experience is primarily with US activities, that is our focus in this article. Our main goal is to explore, from a multifaceted perspective, why we are where we are now and how we can move forward.

Current gender stereotypes and their evaluative content.

Abstract: A sample of 173 undergraduate students rated 300 attributes to assess current gender stereotypes, and a second independent sample (n = 57) evaluated the favorability of these attributes. Statistical results indicated that the college students ascribed different attributes to men and women. Although the content of gender stereotypes seems to have remained unchanged over the years, the value attached to stereotypic gender traits seems to be changing. More specifically, a greater number of unfavorable attributes were used to describe men than women, thereby creating a more negative masculine stereotype.

Is paperless really more

Abstract: For the past 20 years, the evolution of the paperless office has been predicted as an inevitable result of technology advances—the fully electronic, high-tech office-of-the-future is just around the corner, according to this thinking. But this prediction doesn't take lessons of history into account. Far from rendering old technologies obsolete, the introduction of new technologies has often stimulated dynamic interactions between old and new. Sometimes, the introduction of new technologies sparks new interest in old ones. Gutenberg's invention of the printing press should have sounded the death knell for handwritten works, for example, yet for several centuries quite the opposite occurred: At the end of the fifteenth century, even though printing was by then well established, care for the elegant hand had not died out, and some of the most memorable examples of calligraphy still lay in the future. While books were becoming more easily available and more people were learning to read, more were also learning to write, often stylishly and with great distinction, and the sixteenth century became not only the age of the printed word but also the century of the great manuals of handwriting. [4] Those who expect new technologies to immediately change the world often forget to take into account the social-material complex of which technologies are only a part [10]. New technologies solve problems , but they also create dilemmas involving social, cultural, organizational , and human factors [5, 6]. Today, the paperless office is more distant than when it was proposed. Despite the enormous popularity of computers and personal digital assistants , along with improvements in screen technology, mobile comput-Rethinking the role of paper in the digital age.

Carbon Dioxide in Star-forming Regions.

Abstract: We consider the gas-phase chemistry of CO2 molecules in active regions. We show that CO2 molecules evaporated from dust in hot cores cannot be efficiently destroyed and are in fact copiously produced in cooler gas. When CO2-rich ices are sputtered in strong MHD shock waves, the increase in atomic hydrogen, due to H2 dissociation by ion-neutral streaming, means that CO2 can be depleted by factors of approximately 500 from its injected abundance. We find that a critical shock speed exists at higher preshock densities below which CO2 molecules can be efficiently sputtered but survive in the postshock gas. These calculations offer an explanation for the low gas/solid CO2 ratios detected by the Infrared Space Observatory in star-forming cores as being due to shock destruction followed by partial reformation in warm gas. The presence of high abundances of CO2 in the strongly shocked Galactic center clouds Sgr B2 and Sgr A also find a tentative explanation in this scenario. Shock activity plays an important role in determining the chemistry of star-forming regions, and we suggest that most hot cores are in fact shocked cores.