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A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with mode-locked modulations is utilized to explore the laser-induced air breakdown. The various modulation depths of the mode-locking within the Q-switched pulse can be utilized to investigate the threshold conditions. With the GHz high-speed detectors to accurately measure the temporal pulse shape pulse by pulse, it is verified that the air breakdown threshold is crucially determined by the peak-power density instead of the energy density from the statistic results, especially for mode-locked Q-switched lasers. The stability of the system for laser-induced breakdown can be evaluated by threshold width through fitting the statistical result. Otherwise, by measuring the temporal characteristics of the excitation pulse and the induced plasma, it is further found that the plasma radiation displays a few-nanoseconds time delay to the excitation pulse and shows a decaying tail to be 10 times longer than the plasma build-up time. Moreover, the incident laser pulse is observed to be self-scattered by the air breakdown, and a rapidly modulated scattering rate is found with a slight delay time to the excitation mode-locked subpulse modulations.

This study described the relations of experiential learning and psychosocial development of Taiwanese university students through the qualitative method of phenomenology. Thirty-six students, age ranged from 19 to 25 years, from three research-oriented universities in northern Taiwan were interviewed. Seven themes were delineated: (1) discovering interests and potential; (2) forming conceptual framework, stimulating thinking, and taking action; (3) accepting differences and developing empathy; (4) gaining new experiences and managing emotions; (5) practicing cooperation and communication skills and enhancing interpersonal competence; (6) rectifying mistakes and enhancing interpersonal skills; and (7) enhancing self-understanding and establishing self-identity. The findings indicated that university students have been inevitably exercising the frame of experiential learning in their psychosocial development in many aspects of life, especially on building self-identity.

The study looked back on the one-year experience of the first group of peer mentors of a university at northern Taiwan. Twelve peer mentors (six males and six females; with an average age of 21.45) took part in the study. A qualitative phenomenological approach and in-depth interviews were adopted. The results showed that participants deemed the peer mentoring experience as a unique interpersonal relationship experience and the experience helped them develop in the areas of self-awareness, responsibility, sense of mission, interpersonal interaction, resource utilization, leadership, management, coaching, problem-solving, and self-identity. It is suggested that universities leveraged the peer mentoring system to assist students, especially freshmen, to adapt to university life. Peer mentors should undertake pre-training as well as on-the-job training with the help of professionals with different expertise.

In regular convolutional neural networks (CNN), fully-connected layers act as classifiers to estimate the probabilities for each instance in classification tasks. The accuracy of CNNs can be improved by replacing fully connected layers with gradient boosting algorithms. In this regard, this study investigates three robust classifiers, namely XGBoost, LightGBM, and Catboost, in combination with a CNN for a land cover study in Hanoi, Vietnam. The experiments were implemented using SPOT7 imagery through (1) image segmentation and extraction of features, including spectral information and spatial metrics, (2) normalization of attribute values and generation of graphs, and (3) using graphs as the input dataset to the investigated models for classifying six land cover classes, namely House, Bare land, Vegetation, Water, Impervious Surface, and Shadow. The results show that CNN-based XGBoost (Overall accuracy = 0.8905), LightGBM (0.8956), and CatBoost (0.8956) outperform the other methods used for comparison. It can be seen that the combination of object-based image analysis and CNN-based gradient boosting algorithms significantly improves classification accuracies and can be considered as alternative methods for land cover analysis.

(1,3;1,4)-β-d-Glucans, also named as mixed-linkage glucans, are unbranched non-cellulosic polysaccharides containing both (1,3)- and (1,4)-β-linkages. The linkage ratio varies depending upon species origin and has a significant impact on the physicochemical properties of the (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucans. (1,3;1,4)-β-d-Glucans were thought to be unique in the grasses family (Poaceae); however, evidence has shown that (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucans are also synthesized in other taxa, including horsetail fern Equisetum, algae, lichens, and fungi, and more recently, bacteria. The enzyme involved in (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucan biosynthesis has been well studied in grasses and cereal. However, how this enzyme is able to assemble the two different linkages remains a matter of debate. Additionally, the presence of (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucan across the species evolutionarily distant from Poaceae but absence in some evolutionarily closely related species suggest that the synthesis is either highly conserved or has arisen twice as a result of convergent evolution. Here, we compare the structure of (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucans present across various taxonomic groups and provide up-to-date information on how (1,3;1,4)-β-d-glucans are synthesized and their functions.

This article was to elaborate the development of the university counseling profession in Taiwan through an intensive literature review. The university student body has been expanding radically in the last three decades, and the student population, as well as their problems, have become more diverse and complex. Thus, the importance of university counseling profession and the quality of UCC services have been identified in assisting students to cope with stress, to deal with psychosocial problems, and to facilitate development during their university journey. Eight main themes derived from the literature review: (1) historical evolution and current condition of university counseling profession, (2) UCC roles, functions and services content, (3) UCC administration and management, (4) students' utilization of UCCs and attitudes toward UCPs, (5) characteristics, problem types, and needs of students on university campuses, (6) UCC services meeting the needs of students on university campuses, (7) UCC challenges and obstacles, and (8) UCC prospects. UCC services became diverse, multi-channeled, and multi-dimensional to respond to student needs. UCPs should be flexible in professional roles as well as job contents, strategies, and implementation methods. The major challenge for UCC is to develop a native model of services with the perspectives of campus as a community. UCPs are playing the major role to enhance mental health services of university campus members.

Saponins are amphiphilic molecules consisting of carbohydrate and either triterpenoid or steroid aglycone moieties and are noted for their multiple biological activities—Fungicidal, antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antioxidant and immunomodulatory effects have all been observed. Saponins from natural sources have long been used in herbal and traditional medicines; however, the isolation of complexed saponins from nature is difficult and laborious, due to the scarce amount and structure heterogeneity. Chemical synthesis is considered a powerful tool to expand the structural diversity of saponin, leading to the discovery of promising compounds. This review focuses on recent developments in the structure optimization and biological evaluation of synthetic triterpenoid and steroid saponin derivatives. By summarizing the structure–activity relationship (SAR) results, we hope to provide the direction for future development of saponin-based bioactive compounds.

This study describes the learning and development experiences of teacher education students after taking an introductory course on adolescent psychology. The instructor adopted the developmental instruction model (DIM) (Knefelkamp, 1998) in this study and facilitated students learn through experiential learning. Fifteen students (aged between 20 and 28, with an average of 23.25) submitted a report and a research paper during the course and were invited for an in-depth interview after the course ended. Each student provided three sets of data (a brief paper, a research report, and an interview), and the instructor and research assistant recorded observation/reflection notes which were all analyzed with phenomenological qualitative method. Six themes emerge: (1) improved self-understanding including review of characteristics of their adolescence and how their adolescence makes who they are; (2) better understanding of modern youngsters including characteristics of adolescents in Taiwan and other countries and the challenges they encounter; (3) understanding of impacts of environmental factors (family, campus life, society and culture) on teenagers such as how changes in environment affect them; (4) acquisition of counseling techniques for adolescents; (5) experiencing the effectiveness of experiential learning; and (6) recognition of the practicality of DIM. The findings of this study served as the foundation for teacher education students to go deeper into the world of adolescent psychology, and for designing and selection of pedagogical methods for psychology courses. Findings supported that this course could enhance teacher education students' understanding of themselves and adolescents. It also could solidify their teaching and counseling skills for youngsters.

Purpose: Many emerging economy firms are under foreign owners' pressure to embrace the challenges of addressing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and consider adopting sustainability initiatives. However, it is not clear how foreign ownership plays a role to enable or inhibit these emerging economy firms from translating sustainability initiatives into improved financial performance. Utilizing neo-institutional theory, the authors argue that emerging economy firms that voluntarily report sustainability gain legitimacy in the eyes of shareholders and improve stock market performance. However, emerging economy firms may not have the resources to reconcile the internal stakeholders' various legitimacy requirements to promote sustainability practices, resulting in a negative association with accounting performance. Foreign ownership attenuates the relationship between sustainability reporting and firm performance due to the different legitimacy requirements in foreign markets. Design/methodology/approach: To test the study's hypotheses, the authors collected and analyzed a large sample of publicly listed firms between 2010 and 2016 in Taiwan where the types of foreign ownership include foreign trust funds, foreign financial institutions and other foreign legal entities. Regression analyses were conducted to investigate whether the firms that report their sustainable practices have better financial performance, including stock market performance and accounting performance. Additionally, a three-step procedure was employed to address the endogeneity issue with a binary explanatory variable. Findings: The positive stock market reaction to the emerging economy firms' voluntary sustainability reporting supports legitimacy gained among investors. By contrast, sustainability reporting has a negative association with accounting performance due to the difficulty of reconciling different legitimacy requirements among various stakeholders in emerging economies. Further, foreign ownership, particularly the trust fund, exhibits a negative moderating effect on the relationship between sustainability reporting in aligning corporate practices with sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the company's stock market performance. Originality/value: By examining the less tested contingent role played by foreign ownership in the emerging economy firms' sustainability reporting, the authors provide insights into the influence exerted by different types of foreign ownership on firms' financial performances beyond previous studies that focus on family ownership, state ownership, or managerial ownership in emerging economies. The findings shed light on corporate sustainability strategy and foreign direct investment policies for an emerging economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-level ab initio and density functional theory were applied to investigate property and reactivity of polyselenides and polysulfides. With CH3XnH (X = S or Se) we found that the deprotonation energy (and pKa) of CH3SenH, ionization potential (IP) of , and CH3Sen−H bond dissociation energy (BDE) are lower than those of their sulfur counterparts. For n = 2, IPs and X−H BDEs are exceptionally small. The relative nucleophilicity of C H 3 X n − vary with substrates. However, CH3SenH are more nucleophilic than CH3SnH due to their due to their lower deprotonation energy. The nucleophilicity of selenolates versus thiolates are related to the chemical nature. Selenium is more electrophilic than sulfur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software avatars are increasingly applied to support children's collaborative storytelling because avatars may serve as a transparent shield or as embodied agents to facilitate creativity in children. However, when using avatars, it is not easy for children to practise and refine their speaking skills by narrating their stories to an audience. The programming difficulties involved in that process tend to distract attention away from the collaborative storytelling activity itself. This study therefore proposes an interaction model featuring tangible story avatars (TSAs) that can serve as a platform to scaffold collaborative story creation, revision and narrative. A 9-week study with 16 children aged 8 years was conducted to evaluate the interaction model with the TSAs. The results suggest that the TSAs may play three primary roles in facilitating collaborative storytelling: as a tool for developing confidence, as a tool for reflective story development and as a group artefact. Researchers and educators may find it valuable to consider these three roles in designing the TSAs in support of collaborative storytelling in similar contexts.