Intra-cultural and Inter-cultural Contact Orientation of International Students in Japan: Uncertainty Management by Cultural Identification

The lack of exchange between international students and host nationals in Japan has long been a pressing issue, yet very little progress has been made to rectify this situation. This study examined this issue by focusing on how international students in Japan perceive intercultural contact with their host and home culture members during their sojourn. The study applied a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, collecting data through semi-structured interviews with 41 international students from China, the UK, and the USA, and tenets of Social Identity Theory and Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory were adopted. We analyzed the data on a framework of how international students manage uncertainty in the Japanese environment by identifying with the host and their own home cultures, which we distinguished as inter-cultural or intra-cultural contact orientation. International students demonstrated an intra-cultural rather than inter-cultural contact orientation due to the host nationals reacting to them as “foreigners.”

Transient Evolution of Rheological Properties of Dense Granular Inertial Flow Under Plane Shear

Exploration on the transient evolution of the rheological properties of dense granular inertial flow is essential for revealing how the balance is established between the boundary drive strength and the internal shear strength. In this paper, discrete element method simulations are performed to study the transient flow characteristics of a dense granular system under plane shear in the inertial regime. To this end, we quantitatively analyze the changes in the system’s flow state, interfacial friction coefficient, internal friction coefficient, and microstructure. Simulation results show that the evolution of the horizontal flow experiences three typical stages, namely transmission, adjustment, and stabilization. Meanwhile, the shear dilatancy caused by the vertical movement of particles, gradually loosens the filling state, weakens the spatial geometric constraint and the system’s tangential load-bearing capacity, thereby decreasing the interfacial friction coefficient and reducing the boundary drive strength. On the other hand, the variations in the anisotropies of both contact orientation and contact forces, increase the internal friction coefficient and improve the internal shear strength. Therefore, the evolution of flow state from initially static to finally stable reduces the boundary drive strength while enhances the internal shear strength, and eventually a balance between them is achieved. Distinguished from the micromechanical behaviors, under different shear velocities the internal shear strength always mainly originates from the anisotropies in contact orientation and in normal contact force. Moreover, the contribution of the anisotropy in contact orientation becomes more predominant with the increase of shear velocity.

Contact evolution in granular materials with inherently anisotropic fabric

This paper presents the results of two triaxial compression tests performed on approximately 9×103 oblate spheroids (lentils) with different initial orientations with respect to the loading axis (approximately 30° and 60°). Typical stress-strain information is complemented with x-ray tomography scans every 1 % strain. Starting from an initial labelling of particles, a new technique is used to obtain unprecedented detail of tracking of all the particles through time. This rich dataset is analysed from the perspective of inter-particle contacts (building on previous metrological work on this subject) revealing that the mean contact orientation in both samples rotates towards the direction of σ1 at a rate depending on the initial orientation. Different trends are observed for the alignment of contact orientation, with a significant evolution observed in the sample prepared at 30° which is not as pronounced as in the other sample.

Quasi-continuum Simulations of Solid-state Pressure Nanowelding of Metals

Background: Nanowelding is an attractive bottom-up fabrication technique that allows the construction, connection, and repair of nanomaterials. The effects of contact interference, crystal orientation, and material type of nanoscale welded pairs are investigated in terms of atomic trajectories, strain distribution, and the stress-strain curve. Methods: The quasi-continuum (QC) method is applied to simulate nanowelding process. The QC method is a multi-scale combined molecular dynamics approach that mixes atomistic and continuum algorithms. Results: At a small contact interference of 0-1 nm, the ultimate stress of welded pairs is independent of the magnitude of contact interference. Regarding the effect of material type, the average ultimate stress for Ni-Ni welded pairs is the highest and that for Cu-Cu welded pairs is the lowest, regardless of the contact orientation mode. The elongation of Ni-Ni welded pairs increases with increasing contact interference. Conclusion: The crystal orientation of the contact plane and material type significantly determine the welding quality. Welding on the close-packed plane of both substrates leads to the highest ultimate stress. The ultimate stress for Ni-Ni welding pairs is the highest, and that for Cu- Cu welded pairs is the lowest.

Business communication: socio-psychological aspects. Tutorial.

The purpose of studying this tutorial is to increase the level of communicative competence in business communication. The focus is on the basic type of business communication - business conversation. Exhaustively covers all its stages - establishing contact, orientation in the problem, discussion and decision-making, as well as the opposition of manipulating and assertive behavior. The training manual is intended for students enrolled in the master´s level in the direction of "Sociology" (39.04.01). It can be used for training of master students and other social and managerial skills.