Cross-Cultural Adjustment and Coping:U.S.Students in Taiwan Residents Higher Education

The aim of this study was to investigate the adjustment problems of students from the United States enrolled in universities in the East,specifically in Taiwan,their problems related to cultural adaptation,and the process of adjustment to student life in Taiwan.Under investigation were cultural adjustment and coping skills as these students transitioned from West to East.Qualitative data were collected from interviews with participants and faculty members as well as participant observations.Results indicated that U.S.students found their own ways to acclimate to their new academic setting as well as to social relations,cross-cultural issues,and the linguistic environment in Taiwan to achieve effective adaptation.They made changes in themselves to cope with all situations they encountered.This study provides suggestions for international students abroad in Taiwan,for the Taiwan Residents government,and for universities or colleges in terms of what they should offer to current and future international students.

On the Understanding of Cross-cultural Adaptation

This paper puts its emphasis on the process of cross-cultural adaptation from a theoretical perspective.First,the term cross-cultural adaptation will be interpreted.Second,the process of cross-cultural adaptation during which enculturation,acculturation,assimilation and deculturation may occur,is going to be discussed.Finally,some possible strategies for effective cross-cultural adaptation will be probed in the hope of making intercultural communication a less stressful and more positive and enjoyable experience.

Cross-cultural adaptation of the Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale for nurse in emergency department

Objective: To follow the guidelines of intercultural adaptation provided by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons’(AAOS) Evidence-Based Medicine Committee, translating the original scale and evaluating the reliability and validity, and then to compile the Chinese version of the Management of Aggression and Violence Attitude Scale (MAVAS) for nurses in emergency room in the mainland of China. Methods: This study consists of two phases of testing:(1) translation: forward translation, synthesis, back translation, expert committee review, and pretesting;(2) psychometric properties: content and construct validity, internal consistency, and test–retest reliability. Results: The Chinese version of MAVAS and the original version showed excellent similarities and equivalence. The average Scalelevel Content Validity Index was 0.904, and the Item-level Content Validity Index ranged from 0.80 to 1.00. The construct validity was tested using confirmatory factor analysis by LISREL 8.7;χ2/df of the scale was 4.781<5, NFI, NNFI, CFI, IFI>0.90, indicating that the scale’s factor structure model fitted better. The internal consistency was satisfactory (scale, Cronbach’s α=0.94;subscales, Cronbach’s α=0.74–0.90), and the test–retest reliability over 2 weeks was good (scale, Pearson’s coefficient=0.996;subscales, Pearson’s coefficient=0.801–0.963). Conclusions: The Chinese version of MAVAS had an excellent feasibility. It was found to be a valid and reliable tool to assess nurses’ attitude toward patients’ violence in emergency department.

Evaluation of the Translation,Cross-cultural Adaptation and Properties of Measurement of the FACT-BMT Questionnaire

Various questionnaires have been described which evaluate the quality of life in patients undergoing cancer treatment,but most were originally developed in English and have not been adequately validated for other languages.To evaluate the process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation and the measurement properties of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplantation(FACT-BMT)questionnaire,a systematic review was conducted with two independent evaluators.The search for articles was carried out in four databases:MEDLINE,EMBASE,CINAHL and SCIELO,using the terms“questionnaire”,“quality of life”,“oncology”,and“valid”and their descriptors according to MeSH and DeCs.The searches yielded 6,877 studies,of which only three performed the stages of translation,cross-cultural adaptation,and evaluation of the measurement properties of the FACT-BMT questionnaire.The instruments in Arabic,Chinese,Korean and Portuguese showed and presented good methodological quality,but none of the four studies followed all the validation criteria for the questionnaire.The adapted versions of the FACT-BMT have methodological weaknesses in their process of translation and cross-cultural adaptation and evaluation of measurement properties,therefore the questionnaires possibly being used inadequately in other languages.

Cross-cultural Adaptation Analysis and Countermeasures of Overseas Chinese Students——Take University of Lincoln as an Example

This paper is an exploratory,empirical study of the Cross-Cultural Adaptation(CCA)issues of Overseas Chinese Stu⁃dents(OCS)studying at the University of Lincoln.The project identifies OCS own language proficiency,motivation of studying abroad and intercultural adaptation attitudes and strategies as the main influencing factors in students’CCA.Research methods in⁃clude Language class observation,a questionnaire survey and interviews.Additional data collection methods include using network communication tools to conduct interviews with OCS,such as Wechat,QQ,Skype and e-mail etc.Further analysis of its causes makes a meaningful contribution to practical strategies and suggestions on how to better develop and cultivate cross-cultural adapt⁃ability.

Problems and Strategies:A Study of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Chinese Undergraduates in the Philippines

Investigating the intercultural adaptation of Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines provides an effective example of bridging the gap between theories of intercultural adaptation.A questionnaire and interviews were conducted to explore the problems and challenges faced by Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines,thereby providing some first-hand information for subsequent studies on cultural adaptation.Chinese undergraduates in the Philippines faced four main challenges,namely interpersonal communication,living environment,social services,and course study.As coping strategies,four suggestions are presented,including cultural integration,life experience,bridge building,and rational docking.

Reliability and Validity Test of Questionnaire on the Adaptation Strategy of Cryosphere Changes in Arid Inland River Basin

[Objective] The aim was to test the reliability and validity of questionnaire on the adaptation strategy of cryosphere changes in arid inland river basin. [Method] A questionnaire on 'the adaptation strategy of cryosphere changes in arid inland river basin' was carried out in Urumchi River basin and Aksu River basin, and its reliability and validity were tested by means of statistical method, so as to investigate the stability and accuracy of questionnaire. [Result] Reliability analysis of questionnaire showed that the split-half reliability coefficient of questionnaire in Urumchi River basin and Aksu River basin was 0.729 and 0.750, respectively, and Cronbach’s α reliability coefficient was 0.613 and 0.616, respectively, which revealed that the questionnaire had good equivalence and internal consistency which reflected good reliability and stability. According to validity analysis on questionnaire, there was significant correlation between the score of most questions and questionnaire, and it indicated that questionnaire had high content validity. There were 8 common factors collected from 26 questions, which were summarized as agricultural planting, agricultural water conservation, life satisfaction, cultivated land variation, social integration sense, climate and cryosphere changes, capital input improved by environment and family economic condition, respectively. Meanwhile, the contribution rate of various questions in corresponding indexes was higher, and reflected structure was in full accord with questionnaire content, which revealed that questionnaire owned good construct validity. [Conclusion] With higher stability and accuracy, the questionnaire could determine the desired topic and content and was suitable for the study on the perception of common people and choices of adaptive strategy under cryosphere changes in arid inland river basin in northwestern China.

Advanced reliability analysis of slopes in spatially variable soils using multivariate adaptive regression splines

This study aims to extend the multivariate adaptive regression splines(MARS)-Monte Carlo simulation(MCS) method for reliability analysis of slopes in spatially variable soils. This approach is used to explore the influences of the multiscale spatial variability of soil properties on the probability of failure(P_f) of the slopes. In the proposed approach, the relationship between the factor of safety and the soil strength parameters characterized with spatial variability is approximated by the MARS, with the aid of Karhunen-Loeve expansion. MCS is subsequently performed on the established MARS model to evaluate Pf.Finally, a nominally homogeneous cohesive-frictional slope and a heterogeneous cohesive slope, which are both characterized with different spatial variabilities, are utilized to illustrate the proposed approach.Results showed that the proposed approach can estimate the P_f of the slopes efficiently in spatially variable soils with sufficient accuracy. Moreover, the approach is relatively robust to the influence of different statistics of soil properties, thereby making it an effective and practical tool for addressing slope reliability problems concerning time-consuming deterministic stability models with low levels of P_f.Furthermore, disregarding the multiscale spatial variability of soil properties can overestimate or underestimate the P_f. Although the difference is small in general, the multiscale spatial variability of the soil properties must still be considered in the reliability analysis of heterogeneous slopes, especially for those highly related to cost effective and accurate designs.

A Reliable Adaptive High-Definition Transmission System for Distance Learning

There is an increasing demand for supporting high-quality real-time audiovisual services for the next generation wired and wireless networks. However, due to variety of bandwidths of different networks, it is a great challenge for deployment. In this paper, a novel high-definition (HD) video transmission system was proposed which depends upon reliable compound multicast protocols and QoS control over the various kinds of networks. This system detects client's network condition and assigns it to a proper proxy. Each proxy is capable of detecting network parameters and adaptively tuning such transport parameters as bit rate, video resolution, frame rate and QoS mechanisms to this condition. It also provides FEC error recovery under consideration of characteristics of MPEG4 video codec. Our simulation demonstrates that different network clients such as ADSL, CERNET, and CERNET2 can receive more video reliability with less delay.

Adaptive Radial Based Sampling for Reliability and Reliability Sensitivity Analysis Involving Truncated Correlated Normal Variables

The reliability and reliability sensitivity （ RS ） models are presented for the engineering problem involving truncated correlated normal variables （CNV）, and in the case an adaptive radial based sampling is used to analyze the reliability and the RS. In the presented models, the truncated CNV is transformed to general CNV, and the value domains of the truncated CNV are treated as multiple failure modes, then the reliability and the RS with the truncated CNV are transformed to the general cases, on which an e^cient radial based sampling is used to analyze the trans- formed reliability and RS. An adaptive strategy is employed to search for the optimal radial in the sampling, by which the robustness of the method is improved. After the model concepts and the detailed implementation are given, several examples are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the model and the efficiency of the solutions.

Modelling Reliability-adaptive Multi-system Operation

This contribution discusses the concept of Reliability-Adaptive Systems （RAS） to multi-system operation. A fleet of independently operating systems and a single maintenance unit axe considered. It is the objective in this paper to increase overall performance or workload respectively by avoiding delay due to busy maintenance units. This is achieved by concerted and coordinated derating of individual system performance, which increases reliability. Quantification is carried out by way of a convolution-based approach. The approach is tailored to fleets of ships, aeroplanes, spacecraft, and vehicles （trains, trams, buses, cars, trucks, etc.） - Finally, the effectiveness of derating is validated using different criteria. The RAS concept makes sense if average system output loss due to lowered performance level （yielding longer time to failure） is smaller than average loss due to waiting for maintenance in a non-adaptive case.

Reliability assessment for serviceability limit states of stiffened deep cement mixing column-supported embankments

The reliability and deterministic analyses of wood-cored stiffened deep cement mixing and deep cement mixing column-supported embankments(referred to as WSCSE and DCSE,respectively)considering serviceability limit state requirements are presented in this paper.Random field theory was used to simulate the spatial variability of soil
cement mixing(SCM)material in which the adaptive Kriging Monte Carlo simulation was adopted to estimate the failure probability of a column
supported embankment(CSE)system.A new method for stochastically generating random values of unconfined compressive strength(qu)and the ratio(Ru)between the undrained elastic modulus and qu of SCM material based on statistical correlation data is proposed.Reliability performance of CSEs concerning changes in the mean(μ),coefficient of variation(CoV),and vertical spatial correlation length(θv)of qu and Ru are presented and discussed.The obtained results indicate that WSCSE can provide a significantly higher reliability level and can tolerate more SCM material spatial variability than DCSE.Some performance of DCSE and WSCSE,which can be considered satisfactory in a deterministic framework,cannot guarantee an acceptable reliability level from a probabilistic viewpoint.This highlights the importance and necessity of employing reliability analyses for the design of CSEs.Moreover,consideration of only μ and CoV of qu seems to be sufficient for reliability analysis of WSCSE while for DCSE,uncertainties regarding the Ru(i.e.both μ and CoV)and θv of qu cannot be ignored.

Asher-McDade鼻唇评价量表的汉化及信效度初步研究

目的检测Asher-McDade鼻唇评价量表汉化后的信效度,明确其在中国唇裂术后效果评价的可行性。方法通过翻译、回译、调试及预调查形成中文版Asher-McDade鼻唇评价量表,选取四川大学华西口腔医院收治的80例唇腭裂患者的术后照片,并由唇腭裂外科的手术医生、护理人员、研究生共10名等进行问卷调查,检验量表的信度和效度。结果量表克隆巴赫系数为0.804,量表的重测信度为0.895。量表的内容效度指数(ICVI)为1.000,量表平均内容效度指数(S-CVI/ave)为0.95。量表Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin(KMO)值为0.706,巴特利球体检验显示χ^(2)值为962.260(P<0.01),累积方差贡献率为63.095%。结论中文版Asher-McDade鼻唇评价量表具有良好的信度和效度,且适用于中国唇裂患者术后照片的效果评价。

一种基于自适应Kriging集成模型的结构可靠性分析方法

基于Kriging模型的复杂结构可靠性分析结果高度依赖于Kriging模型的拟合精度,在构建Kriging模型的过程中,不同相关函数和回归函数的选择均会影响模型精度。为解决模型的不确定性对可靠性分析结果的影响,同时兼顾计算效率和精度,基于Kriging模型和蒙特卡罗模拟(MCS)方法,提出了一种结合自适应集成策略和主动学习函数的结构可靠度计算方法。该方法考虑Kriging模型的建模不确定性,将多种Kriging模型组合,构建了一种综合考虑样本点贡献和样本点距离的主动学习函数,通过主动学习函数迭代更新集成Kriging模型直至满足收敛条件,最后通过构建的集成Kriging模型和MCS方法进行结构可靠性分析。数值算例和工程算例结果验证了所提方法的有效性,该方法与其他主要方法相比稳健性更好,在保证计算精度的同时,计算效率更高。

一种基于AK-MCS-K的失效概率函数估计方法

针对可靠性优化设计中失效概率函数求解复杂、计算量大等问题,提出一种求解失效概率函数的高效方法。所提方法的基本思路是利用自主学习Kriging方法构造输入变量全空间在失效边界处的局部代理模型,进而通过该局部代理模型结合Monte Carlo模拟法计算在指定分布参数样本下结构的失效概率,然后基于Kriging方法拟合分布参数样本点与对应结构失效概率之间的函数关系,最终建立用Kriging模型表达的失效概率函数的隐式函数。为了检验所提方法的精度和效率,给出了两个算例,对比了所提方法与已有的求解失效概率函数方法的计算结果。算例结果表明,所提方法适用于求解复杂的功能函数问题,并在满足精度要求的基础上显著降低了计算量。

激光自适应光学系统可靠性改进效果评估

随着自适应光学技术在激光领域的发展,工程上以经典自适应光学(AO)系统为基础,增加了多种基于软件监测和硬件保护的改进措施以保证激光AO系统稳定连续出光。面对结构复杂度提升带来的可靠性挑战,如何构建系统失效模型对激光AO系统可靠性进行评估,成为影响激光AO系统发展的重要一环。本文以激光光稳净化AO系统为例,提出使用动态故障树方法对激光AO系统可靠性进行评估,根据设备间动态关系建立动态故障树(DFT),结合厂家信息、疲劳寿命试验与历史数据估计得到底事件失效率,使用二元决策图和马尔可夫模型求解得到DFT的可靠性参数。使用DFT分析增加改进措施的AO系统可靠运行时间,结果相对于基本故障树获得了十倍以上的提高。实际系统调试期间,在预计的可靠运行时间内未发生自因故障,与DFT估计结果一致。验证了应用DFT方法评估增加改进措施后的激光AO系统可靠性更准确。

基于可靠性集成的无监督域自适应行人重识别

为了缓解基于伪标签的无监督域自适应行人重识别(UDA person ReID)方法中噪声标签带来的负面影响,提出了一种基于可靠性集成的无监督域自适应行人重识别(UDA-RI)方法。该方法包含渐进式伪标签提炼策略和基于可靠性集成策略两个部分。渐进式伪标签提炼策略通过建立一个不确定性的定量标准来衡量伪标签的可靠性,并采用渐进式采样使得模型得到更加稳定的训练。基于可靠性集成策略考虑了来自不同适应时刻的知识,将来自不同迭代的模型按照可靠性高低分配的权重进行了集成,并将自集成后的两种不同架构的模型再进行集成作为最终推理模型。实验表明,与目前先进的无监督域自适应行人重识别方法相比,UDA-RI方法在Market1501、DukeMTMC-ReID和MSMT17数据集上都取得了优越的性能。

基于鲁棒马氏距离统计量的多源融合抗差估计方法

为了有效抵御复杂多变城市环境下的全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)信号干扰、增强多源融合定位可靠性,提出一种基于鲁棒马氏距离的多源融合抗差估计方法。该方法在分析观测值故障传播特点以及典型方差膨胀抗差估计模型基础上,基于相邻新息序列构造鲁棒马氏距离检验统计量。历史新息的引入能够提高系统观测冗余,同时不同观测量间的新息交互增强了异常检验统计量的鲁棒性。根据鲁棒马氏距离的统计特性,给出抗差关键门限取值规则并分别结合两种典型加权策略自适应调节观测值噪声矩阵。利用典型城市峡谷环境下惯性导航系统(INS)/GNSS/激光雷达(LiDAR)/VINS多源融合车载数据进行相关实验,与现有方法相较,所提方法能够将三维均方根定位误差最低限制在3.37 m。通过对比不同组显著性水平下的定位结果,进一步说明所提方法在城市峡谷环境下定位的优越性。

基于自适应Kriging模型的双螺旋轴可靠性分析

双螺旋轴是高速水稻插秧机的关键部分,其回转槽面在强轴向力作用下容易破坏失效,因此对双螺旋轴进行可靠性分析十分重要.针对传统方法获得其可靠度耗资大、时间长的问题,采用自适应Kriging模型结合Monte Carlo模拟的可靠性分析方法(AK-MCS)对双螺旋轴进行可靠性分析,以减少计算成本、提高计算效率.根据双螺旋轴的工况条件,考虑材料密度、工作载荷、工作温度3个参数对其所受挤压应力的影响,进行可靠性分析.分析结果表明:在许用应力值为613.21 MPa的条件下,计算得出双螺旋轴的可靠度为0.9986.与单一的Monte Carlo模拟法进行对比,本文提出的评估方法在仿真效率上有明显优势,为双螺旋轴可靠性分析提供了一种思路.

时变可靠性分析的高效近似最大可能轨迹法

现有的时变可靠性分析方法在处理飞行器复杂时变可靠性分析问题时,具有求解效率过低的缺点。在基于近似最大可能轨迹的时变可靠性分析方法的基础上,根据时间离散所得串联系统瞬时可靠度最小的组件决定整个系统可靠度的特点,在最大可能轨迹自适应建模过程中同时考虑轨迹模型的预测误差和预估值增加样本,提出时变可靠性分析的高效近似最大可能轨迹法;采用解析算例验证最大可能轨迹法的有效性,并将该可靠性分析方法应用于水动力涡轮叶片和航天飞机机翼的时变可靠性分析。结果表明:在精度相近的情况下,所提方法对极限状态函数调用次数不高于基于时间离散的可靠性分析方法的3%。