Individual differences influencing context effects in responding to items assessing conscientiousness in a personality test

Context effects in a personality scale were examined by determining if conscientiousness scale (C) scores were significantly different when administered alone vs. part of a Five Factor Model inventory (Big5). The effectiveness of individual difference variables (IDVs) as predictors of the context effect was also examined. The experiment compared subjects who completed the full Big5 once and the C alone once (Big5/C or C/Big5) to subjects who complete either the Big5 inventory twice (Big5/Big5) or the C twice (C/C). No significant differences were found. When Big5/C and C/Big5 groups were combined, IDVs were tested, and only the field dependence variable (R2 = .06) was found to significantly predict the context effect. However, the small R2 minimized concerns of context effects in Big5 inventories. ^

Dynamic modeling and analysis of single-stage boost inverters under normal and abnormal conditions

Inverters play key roles in connecting sustainable energy (SE) sources to the local loads and the ac grid. Although there has been a rapid expansion in the use of renewable sources in recent years, fundamental research, on the design of inverters that are specialized for use in these systems, is still needed. Recent advances in power electronics have led to proposing new topologies and switching patterns for single-stage power conversion, which are appropriate for SE sources and energy storage devices. The current source inverter (CSI) topology, along with a newly proposed switching pattern, is capable of converting the low dc voltage to the line ac in only one stage. Simple implementation and high reliability, together with the potential advantages of higher efficiency and lower cost, turns the so-called, single-stage boost inverter (SSBI), into a viable competitor to the existing SE-based power conversion technologies.^ The dynamic model is one of the most essential requirements for performance analysis and control design of any engineering system. Thus, in order to have satisfactory operation, it is necessary to derive a dynamic model for the SSBI system. However, because of the switching behavior and nonlinear elements involved, analysis of the SSBI is a complicated task.^ This research applies the state-space averaging technique to the SSBI to develop the state-space-averaged model of the SSBI under stand-alone and grid-connected modes of operation. Then, a small-signal model is derived by means of the perturbation and linearization method. An experimental hardware set-up, including a laboratory-scaled prototype SSBI, is built and the validity of the obtained models is verified through simulation and experiments. Finally, an eigenvalue sensitivity analysis is performed to investigate the stability and dynamic behavior of the SSBI system over a typical range of operation. ^

Do Syllable Count and Word Frequency Differ Significantly in Easy and Difficult Reading Comprehension Items?

This study investigated the effect of the number of syllables and the word frequency of the words in the reading passages, the question stems, and the answer options of easy and difficult reading comprehension items. Significant differences were found for the easy and difficult items.