Calibration Of Scale Research Articles

The Performance of the Health Communication Assessment Tool© (HCAT-f) in Calibrating Different Levels of Nurse Communication Skills in a French-Speaking Context

Communication skills training is essential in nurse education. Miscommunication may lead to adverse events and unsafe healthcare. To date, valid and reliable instruments to serve both communication training and assessment purposes across different cultural contexts are scarce. The present study empirically tested a French-language version of the Health Communication Assessment Tool© (HCAT-f) across different levels of communication skills performance to establish its reliability and validity through a cognitive fluency framework. Ten experts in communication and 52 nurse educators rated three videos simulating conversations between a nurse and a patient scheduled for lumpectomy. Each video captured a different level of communication skills performed by the nurse: High, medium, and low. Three distinct constructs were identified, i.e., professional presentation, empathy, and trust building. At absolute single-measure, an ICC = .43 suggested adequate interrater reliability of the whole scale for the medium-performed scenario, which decreased in low-performed (ICC = .35) and high-performed (ICC = .18) scenarios. The HCAT-f fulfils the criteria of linguistic equivalence, contextual relevance, and demonstrates acceptable construct validity. It can be used as a summative assessment tool after prior training on scale calibration is in place because interrater agreement was difficult to be established in high and low performance scenarios.

Development and Validation of the Youth Purpose Orientation Scale Among Chinese Sample.

Purpose orientation has an important impact on the development of adolescence. An effective instrument is needed to describe the purpose orientation of youth. The aim of this research is to develop a reliable and valid scale to measure life purpose orientations of youth. Study 1 established a preliminary pool of items based on a literature review, an open-form questionnaire, and some expert opinions. Study 2 used exploratory factor analysis and performed internal consistency and reliability tests. The sample consisted of 442 young Chinese students, divided into males (49.3%) and females (50.7%) with an age range of 13 to 22 years. Study 3 performed confirmatory factor analysis and tested the scale's calibration validity and test-retest reliability. The confirmatory sample comprised 91,635 young Chinese students, divided into males (43.2%) and females (56.5%) with an age range of 12 to 23 years. The calibration validity sample consisted of 572 participants, aged 12 to 22. The test-retest reliability sample consisted of 200 participants. Through exploratory factor analysis, the four-factor structure revealed contains personal growth, social promotion, family well-being, and personal well-being purpose orientations. This four factor-structure revealed a 65.26% cumulative variance. The four factors' alpha reliability was 0.89 for personal growth, 0.87 for social promotion, 0.86 for family well-being, and 0.87 for personal well-being, respectively. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model fitting index had a good four-factor structure. The calibration validity and test-retest reliability were acceptable. These findings demonstrated that the 19-item findings demonstrated that the Youth Purpose Orientation Scale is a valid and reliable measure. In future research, it can be used to measure purpose orientation in youth.

Theoretical Stellar Pulsation Physics

AbstractPulsating stars play a crucial role in the calibration of the cosmic distance scale as well as in tracing the properties of the associated stellar populations. In the era of large observational surveys and precise astrometric missions, it is crucial to rely on accurate stellar pulsation models able to predict the observed behaviors for different physical assumptions. Indeed, the relations currently used in the literature to derive individual and mean distances of mainly radially pulsating stars such as Cepheids and RR Lyrae are well physically understood, but are also known to depend on a number of often unknown parameters. Recent extensive sets of stellar pulsation models developed by various authors show how variations in the physical assumptions can affect the theoretical prediction of the instability strip boundaries, the morphology and amplitude of light and radial velocity curves, and the consequent Period-Luminosity, Period-Luminosity-Color and Period-Wesenheit relations. These aspects are discussed in the framework of current open problems in the field of classical pulsating stars.

A multi-wavelength analysis of BL Her stars: Models versus Observations

AbstractWe present new theoretical period–luminosity (PL) and period–radius (PR) relations at multiple wavelengths (Johnson–Cousins–Glass and Gaia passbands) for a fine grid of BL Herculis models computed using mesa-rsp. The non-linear models were computed for periods typical of BL Her stars, i.e. 1 ≤ P(days) ≤ 4, covering a wide range of input parameters: metallicity (−2.0 dex ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ 0.0 dex), stellar mass (0.5–0.8 ), luminosity (50–300 ) and effective temperature (full extent of the instability strip; in steps of 50K). We investigate the impact of four sets of convection parameters on multi-wavelength properties. Most empirical relations match well with theoretical relations from the BL Her models computed using the four sets of convection parameters. No significant metallicity effects are seen in the PR relations. Another important result from our grid of BL Her models is that it supports combining PL relations of RR Lyrae and Type II Cepheids together as an alternative to classical Cepheids for the extragalactic distance scale calibration.

Design and implementation of the double read-out system for the calorimeter of the HERD experiment

The High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility is a China-led international space mission that will start its operation around 2027 aboard the future China’s Space Station. The mission is expected to extend the direct measurements on cosmic rays and gamma rays by at least one order of magnitude in energy respect to the limits of the experiments currently operating in space. This is possible thanks to its novel design, based on a 3D, homogeneous, isotropic and finely-segmented calorimeter, with good energy resolution (< 1% for electromagnetic showers, < 30% for hadronic showers) and a good effective geometric factor (> 3 m2sr for electromagnetic showers, > 2 m2sr for hadronic showers). The main challenge of the hardware design is the implementation of the read-out system for each of the almost 8000 LYSO crystals of the calorimeter, since a large dynamic range of 107 is needed and absolute energy scale calibration is crucial for space instruments. In this contribution, we describe the double read-out scheme chosen for the final configuration, made of wave-length shifting fibers coupled with an intensified scientific CMOS and photodiodes connected to a specifically designed front-end electronics. In particular, we will discuss the advantages of both read-out systems and the benefits offered to the apparatus by this double read-out scheme.

Evaluating Optical Remote Sensing Methods for Estimating Leaf Area Index for Corn and Soybean

The leaf area index (LAI) is a key crop biophysical variable influencing many vegetation processes. Spatial LAI estimates are essential to develop and improve spatial modeling tools to monitor vegetation conditions at large regional scales. Numerous optical remote sensing methods have been explored to retrieve crop-specific LAI at a regional scale using satellite observations. However, a major challenge is selecting a method that performance well under various conditions without local scale calibration. As such, we assessed the performance of existing statistical and physical approaches, developed based on parametric, non-parametric and radiative transfer model (RTM)-look-up-table based inversion, using field observations from two geographically distant locations and Landsat 5, 7, and 8 satellite observations. These methods were implemented for corn and soybeans cultivated at two locations in the U.S (i.e., Mead, Nebraska, and Bushland, Texas). The evaluation metrics (i.e., Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), and Coefficient of Determination (R2)) were used to study the performance of each method, and then the methods were ranked based on these metrics. Our study showed that overall parametric methods outperformed other methods. The RMSE (MAE) for the top five methods was less than 1.3 (0.95) for corn and 1.0 (0.8) for soybeans, irrespective of location. Even though they outperformed, parametric methods exhibited inconsistency in their performance. For instance, the SR_CA_cross method ranked 1 for corn, however, it performed poorly for soybean (ranked 15). The non-parametric methods showed moderate accuracy partly due to the availability of a smaller number of observations for training. The RTM-LUT inversion physical-based approach was found to perform reasonably well RMSE (MAE) less than 1.5 (1.0) consistently irrespective of location and crop, implying that this approach is more suitable for regional-scale LAI estimation. The results of this study highlighted the drawbacks and advantages of available optical remote sensing approaches to estimate LAI for corn and soybean crops using Landsat imagery. These results are of interest for remote sensing and modeling communities developing spatial-scale approaches to model and monitor agricultural vegetation.

Mitigation of the Magnetic Field Susceptibility of Transition-Edge Sensors Using a Superconducting Groundplane

Transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters and bolometers are used for a variety of applications. The sensors are based on the steep temperature-dependent resistance of the normal-to-superconducting transition, and are thus intrinsically sensitive to magnetic fields. Conventionally the detectors are shielded from stray magnetic fields using external magnetic shields. However, in particular for applications with strict limits on the available space and mass of an instrument, external magnetic shields might not be enough to obtain the required shielding factors or field homogeneity. Additionally, these shields are only effective for magnetic fields generated external to the TES array, and are ineffective to mitigate the impact of internally generated magnetic fields. Here we present an alternative shielding method based on a superconducting groundplane deposited directly on the backside of the silicon nitride membrane on which the TESs are located. We demonstrate that this local shielding for external magnetic fields has a shielding factor of at the least ~ 75, and is also effective at reducing internal self-induced magnetic fields, as demonstrated by measurements and simulation of the eddy current losses in our AC biased detectors. Measurements of 5.9 keV X-ray photons show that our shielded detectors have a high resilience to external magnetic fields, showing no degradation of the energy resolution or shifts of the energy scale calibration for fields of several microTesla, values higher than expected in typical real-world applications.

Determination of relative sensitivity factor, sputtering rate, and detection limits of deuterium in deuterium ion‐implanted Zircaloy‐4 using secondary ion mass spectrometer

Zirconium‐based alloys are extensively used in the nuclear industry as materials for reactor core components. These alloys are used in fuel cladding and pressure tubes with 1H2O or 2H2O as the primary heat exchange fluid. Continuous usage of pressure tubes and fuel cladding inside the reactor results in heavy ingress of hydrogen (1H) or deuterium (2H), which gives rise to the formation of hydrogen (or deuterium) precipitates in the host of zirconium matrix. This is called hydrogen (or deuterium) embrittlement phenomenon. Therefore, determination of hydrogen or deuterium concentration periodically in zirconium alloy pressure tubes and cladding are crucial for safe operation of nuclear reactors. Hence, in this work, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been utilized to determine the relative sensitive factor (RSF), sputtering rate, and detection limits of 2H in 2H+ ion‐implanted Zircaloy‐4 sample. SIMS analysis has been carried out using O2+ and Cs+ primary ion beams. Depth profiles of various elemental and molecular secondary ions have been monitored to determine the RSF values and detection limits of 2H in the sample under different primary ion beam analysis conditions. Sputtering rate under different analysis conditions has also been determined from the correlation between the projected range of 2H+ ions in Zircaloy‐4 sample determined from Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) software and the depth of the crater formed by primary ion beam bombardment process. The projected range of 2H+ ions in Zircaloy‐4 was estimated to be ~524.2 nm using the simulation carried out by SRIM software. The projected range, evaluated by SRIM software, was utilized for depth scale calibration of SIMS sputtered time profiles. The SIMS depth profiles were also calibrated by determining the depth of the SIMS crater by using optical depth profilometer. The values of range estimated by SRIM as well as optical profilometer were found to be in good agreement, within instrument uncertainty.

Daily return distribution forecast incorporating intraday high frequency information in China’s stock market

The stock market forecast is an important and challenging issue. Its distribution forecast of returns can provide information that is more complete, compared to point forecast and interval forecast. As intraday high-frequency information is available, we incorporate intraday returns into the predictive modelling of daily return distribution in two ways: realized volatility and scale calibration. Three parametric models, EGARCH, EGARCH-X, and realGARCH, and two nonparametric models, NP and realNP, are used. Our improved NP model, the realNP model, is based on intraday returns calibration. The results show that intraday information improves goodness-of-fit and forecasting effect, and the realGARCH model is relatively the best. According to the realNP model results, the intraday returns can only contribute about a 30% description of the daily distribution and less than 1% information for a one-step-ahead distribution forecast. Furthermore, three combinations are considered, and the log-score and CRPS combinations are found to have direction predictability and excess profitability statistically. The non-short-selling situation consistently has more excess profits than the short-selling situation, which implies that the non-short-selling rule protects investors. This study reveals the importance of incorporating intraday information and model combinations for stock market forecast modelling.

Modelling water temperature in the lower Olifants River and the implications for climate change

Freshwater systems in southern Africa are under threat of climate change, not only from altered flow regimes as rainfall patterns change, but also from biologically significant increases in water temperature. Statistical models can predict water temperatures from air temperatures, and air temperatures may rise by up to 7 °C by 2100. Statistical water temperature models require less data input than physical models, which is particularly useful in data deficient regions. We validated a statistical water temperature model in the lower Olifants River, South Africa, and verified its spatial applicability in the upper Klaserie River. Monthly and daily temporal scale calibrations and validations were conducted. The results show that simulated water temperatures in all cases closely mimicked those of the observed data for both temporal resolutions and across sites (NSE&gt;0.75 for the Olifants River and NSE&gt;0.8 for the Klaserie). Overall, the model performed better at a monthly than a daily scale, while generally underestimating from the observed (indicated by negative percentage bias values). The statistical models can be used to predict water temperature variance using air temperature and this use can have implications for future climate projections and the effects climate change will have on aquatic species. Significance: Statistical modelling can be used to simulate water temperature variance from observed air temperature, which has implications for future projections and climate change scenarios. While there are many other factors affecting water temperature, air temperature accounts for up to 95% of water temperature variance. The model used can successfully simulate water temperature variance for different rivers.

Speckle Interferometry at SOAR in 2021

The speckle interferometry program at the the 4.1 m Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR), which started in 2008, now has accumulated over 30,300 individual observations of 12,700 distinct targets. Its main goal is to monitor orbital motion of close binaries, including members of high-order hierarchies and low-mass dwarfs in the solar neighborhood. The results from 2021 are published here, totaling 2623 measurements of 2123 resolved pairs and nonresolutions of 763 targets. The median measured separation is 0.″21, and 75 pairs were closer than 30 mas. The calibration of scale and orientation is based on the observations of 103 wide pairs with well-modeled motion. These calibrators are compared to the latest Gaia data release, and minor (0.5%) systematic errors were rectified, resulting in accurate relative positions with typical errors on the order of 1 mas. Using these new measurements, orbits of 282 binaries are determined here (54 first determinations and 228 corrections). We resolved for the first time 50 new pairs, including subsystems in known binaries. A list of 94 likely spurious pairs unresolved at SOAR (mostly close Hipparcos binaries) is also given.

Recommendations for Better Adoption of Medical Photography as a Clinical Tool.

The use of photography in routine clinical practice has the potential to increase the efficiency of overall patient care as well as improve clinical documentation and provider-to-provider communication. This is particularly important in the setting of provider burnout in the electronic health record era and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the potential of photographs to enhance workflows and patient care, challenges remain that hinder the successful incorporation of medical photography into clinical practice, often because of inconsistent structure and implementation. Our proposed consolidated framework for clinical photography consists of five key aspects: appropriate informed consent; proper preparation and positioning; image acquisition with consideration of the field of view, orientation, focus, resolution, scale, and color calibration; streamlined and secure image storage and documentation; and interoperable file exchange. Overall, this viewpoint is a forward-looking paper on leveraging medical photography as an electronic health record tool for clinical care, research, and education.

The ATLAS Tile Calorimeter performance and its upgrade towards the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider

The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is a sampling calorimeter that forms the central region of the hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment. This sub-detector is to undergo its Phase-II upgrade during long-shutdown 3, in the years from 2025 to mid 2027, in preparation for the start of operation of the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) in 2027. In this proceeding, an overview of the TileCal HL-LHC on-detector electronics upgrade is provided. The detectors Run-II performance in the cases of EM scale calibration, calorimeter response, cell energy distribution and noise as well as a portion of the 2015-2018 Test-beam campaigns results are examined.

Rasch Validation of Instrument Measuring Gen-Z Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Application in Teaching during the Pandemic

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching effect on higher education institutions, and individual student assessments have garnered much attention during the pandemic. This study aimed to validate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) application instruments using the Rasch analysis employing Winsteps version 3.73. A survey was conducted with 201 respondents from two provinces in Indonesia. The students were selected by convenience sampling and answered the adopted STEM application instrument. The STEM application instruments were adapted, and these were divided into seven sub-constructs derived from STEM disciplines. Rasch Modelling was employed for data analysis using Winsteps version 3.7.3 to analyse reliability, separation, item fit statistics, unidimensionality, and rating scale calibration. Each sub-construct fulfilled a minimum of 0.65 for Cronbach alpha, item, and person reliability, and most of them had more than 1.5 person and item separation. In general, each item had a good score of the mean square, Z-tolerated standard, and point measure correlation, indicating fulfilment of the Rasch measurement model. The analysis also showed unidimensionality assumption and an excellent rating scale. This study contributed to the body of STEM knowledge by using Rasch Modelling to test the validity and reliability of STEM application instruments.

Ultra Long Period Cepheids: Observation and Theory

Ultra Long Period Cepheids are becoming a very interesting and important topic thanks to the contribution that they can give to understanding the current tension existing between the early-universe and local Hubble constant measurements. These bright pulsating variables are observable up to cosmological distances (larger than 100 Mpc) allowing us, in principle, to measure the Hubble constant without the need for secondary indicators, thus reducing the possible systematic errors in the calibration of the extragalactic distance scale. The Ultra Long Period Cepheids also represent a useful tool for obtaining information on the star formation history of the host galaxy and a challenge for the evolutionary and pulsational models, particularly in the very metal poor regime. In this paper, the largest known ULP sample, consisting of 72 objects, including 10 new candidates, is analyzed to give an observational and theoretical overview of their role as distance indicators and of their evolutionary properties.

Validation of a fast and traceable radiographic scale calibration of dimensional computed tomography

A fast and highly precise method of determining the geometrical scale factor of computed tomography (CT) measurements has been validated successfully by Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), the Federal Institute of Metrology (METAS) and Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) within the scope of AdvanCT (Advanced Computed Tomography for dimensional and surface measurements in industry), a project funded in the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR). The method has been developed by PTB and requires only two radiographic images of a calibrated thin 2D standard (hole grid standard) from two opposite directions. The mean grid distance is determined from both radiographs. From this and with the help of the calibration result, the radiographic scale and therefore the voxel size is determined. The procedure takes only a few minutes and avoids a time-consuming CT scan. To validate the method, the voxel sizes determined via this method were compared with voxel sizes determined from CT scans of calibrated objects. Relative deviations between the voxel sizes in the range of 10−5 were achieved with minimal effort using cone-beam CT systems at moderate magnifications.

Comparison of quantitative elemental depth distribution analyses of Ni and Ti in co-sputtered Ni-Ti alloy thin films using MCs+ and M+ secondary ions

Compositional uniformity in Ni-Ti thin alloy films, both at the surface and in the depth, significantly enhances their performance in various engineering applications. Quantitative depth distributions of Ni and Ti in magnetron co-sputtered Ni-Ti thin alloy films of various composition and thickness, were determined through an effective depth profiling technique. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was utilized to determine the qualitative elemental depth distribution of Ni and Ti in the films using MCs+-SIMS (Cs+ primary ion beam; MCs+ secondary ions, 'M' is the element of interest) and M+-SIMS (O2+ primary ion beam) approaches. The qualitative depth profiles were converted to quantitative depth profiles using the relative sensitivity factor values determined from the elemental concentrations obtained through energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis of one of the Ni-Ti thin film taken as reference. Thickness of the deposited films determined by x-ray reflectivity was used for depth scale calibration of SIMS raw profile. A comparison of the analytical capabilities of MCs+-SIMS and M+-SIMS approaches for determining the mean concentration and quantitative depth distribution of elements Ni and Ti in deposited Ni-Ti thin films has been presented.

Density Functional Theory Approach to the Vibrational Properties and Magnetic Specific Heat of the Covalent Chain Antiferromagnet KFeS2.

Ternary potassium-iron sulfide, KFeS2, belongs to the family of highly anisotropic quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnets with unusual “anti-Curie–Weiss” susceptibility, quasi-linearly growing with a rising temperature up to 700 K, an almost vanishing magnetic contribution to the specific heat, drastically reduced magnetic moment, etc. While some of the measurements can be satisfactorily described, the deficiency of the entropy changes upon the magnetic transition and the spin state of the iron ion remains a challenge for the further understanding of magnetism. In this work, high-quality single-crystalline samples of KFeS2 were grown by the Bridgman method, and their stoichiometry, crystal structure, and absence of alien magnetic phases were checked, utilizing wave-length dispersive X-ray electron-probe microanalysis, powder X-ray diffraction, and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, respectively. An ab initio approach was developed to calculate the thermodynamic properties of KFeS2. The element-specific phonon modes and their density of states (PDOS) were calculated applying the density functional theory in the DFT + U version, which explicitly takes into account the on-site Coulomb repulsion U of electrons and their exchange interaction J. The necessary calibration of the frequency scale was carried out by comparison with the experimental iron PDOS derived from the inelastic nuclear scattering experiment. The infrared absorption measurements confirmed the presence of two high-frequency peaks consistent with the calculated PDOS. The calibrated PDOS allowed the calculation of the lattice contribution to the specific heat of KFeS2 by direct summation over the phonon modes without approximations and adjustable parameters. The temperature-dependent magnetic specific heat evaluated by subtraction of the calculated phonon contribution from the experimental specific heat provides a lower boundary for estimating the reduced spin state of the iron ion.

Development of a Lever-type Calibration Device

This paper mainly introduces a lever-type calibration device to solve the measurement problem of body scale. The design method and design scheme are introduced to verify the feasibility of the device and realize the automatic calibration of the body scale.

The velocity structure of the intracluster medium of the Centaurus cluster

ABSTRACT There are few direct measurements of the intracluster medium (ICM) velocity structure, despite its importance for understanding clusters. We present a detailed analysis of the velocity structure of the Centaurus cluster using XMM–Newton observations. Using a new European Photon Imaging Camera-pn energy scale calibration, which uses the Cu Kα instrumental line as reference, we are able to obtain velocity measurements with uncertainties down to Δ$\mathit{ v}$ ∼ 79 km s−1. We create 2D spectral maps for the velocity, metallicity, temperature, density, entropy, and pressure with a spatial resolution of 0.25 arcmin. We have found that the velocity structure of the ICM is similar to the velocity structure of the main galaxies, while the cold fronts are likely moving in a plane perpendicular to our line of sight with low velocity. Finally, we have found a contribution from the kinetic component of $\lt 25{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ to the total energetic budget for a radius &amp;gt;30 kpc.