Scanning optical microellipsometer for pure surface profiling

We describe a scanning optical interferometer that can simultaneously perform ellipsometry measurements and thus provides a true surface profile. This is accomplished by projecting the back focal plane of the objective lens onto a CCD array. The measured phase differences between the p- and s-polarization components are converted, by using a specially developed algorithm, to optical phase changes caused by material variations. The compensation process is then applied to extract the true profile of the object surface. Experimental results obtained with the system are shown.     

Exploring Privacy Management on Facebook: Motivations and Perceived Consequences of Voluntary Disclosure

This study examined the perceived motivations and consequences of voluntary disclosure of Facebook active users using a survey administered to college students in a public‐speaking course. College‐age students who took the survey were motivated to use Facebook because they perceived their relationships improved with friends and family, although using Facebook could become negatively habit forming. The research suggests that users of Facebook use it more for disclosing to distant friends rather than to close friends, which is divergent from most early disclosure research that equates disclosure with intimacy. This research utilizes Communication Privacy Management Theory for the theoretical framework.     

Investigating the impact of video games on high school students’ engagement and learning about genetics

The popularity of video games has transcended entertainment crossing into the world of education. While the literature base on educational gaming is growing, there is still a lack of systematic study of this emerging technology’s efficacy. This quasi-experimental study evaluated a teacher created video game on genetics in terms of its affective and cognitive impact on student users. While statistical results indicated no differences (p > .05) in student learning as measured by our instrument, there were significant differences (p < .05) found in the participants’ level of engagement while interfacing with the video game. Implications on this emerging line of inquiry are discussed.     

National occupational research agenda (NORA) future directions in occupational musculoskeletal disorder health research

Musculoskeletal disorders are among the most costly health care problems facing society today. The scientific literature has indicated that psychosocial factors, individual factors, workplace physical requirements, and workplace organizational factors have been associated with risk. Since musculoskeletal risk is multi-dimensional, the magnitude of risk attributable to various factors can be of importance to scientists and policy makers in designing countermeasures to reduce injury incidence. Traditionally, the disciplines of biomechanics, physiology, and psychophysics have dominated the body of knowledge that has defined exposure limitations to work. However, recent research has explored the association of psychosocial and work organization factors with musculoskeletal problems. Advances have been made to better quantify the levels of occupational exposure by improved exposure metrics, quantification of three-dimensional loads experienced by certain joints (e.g. the spine), identification of tissue tolerance limits and tissue response to mechanical stresses, and the impact of psychosocial stresses. However, efforts to quantitatively link epidemiological, biomechanical loading, soft tissue tolerance, and psychosocial studies should be pursued to establish a better understanding of the pathways of injury and resultant preventive strategies. Although we are beginning to understand how the major risk factors influence the load-tolerance relationship of human tissue, how these risk factors interact is virtually unexplored. Since the impact of the interactions may be far greater than that of any individual factor, the impact of the interactions between risk factors must be delineated so that work-related risk can be better quantified. Efforts to quantitatively link epidemiological, biomechanical loading, soft tissue tolerance, and psychosocial studies should be pursued to establish a better understanding of the pathways of injury and resultant preventive strategies.     

Going Beyond Telecenters to Foster the Digital Inclusion of Older People in Brazil: Lessons Learned from a Rapid Ethnographical Study

Telecenters take on a prominent role within the current information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem in Brazil. They are seen by a great many as a key means to foster the digital inclusion of the older population in the country. This paper draws upon a rapid ethnographic study conducted with 78 older people in a center that teaches computer classes to seniors in Brazil. The results show that providing older people with technological infrastructures is not enough to strengthen their digital inclusion if their basic and non-instrumental needs are not taken into consideration in defining educational activities to be carried out in public centers. Participants’ basic needs when it comes to interacting with ICT, such as coping with accessibility issues, were dynamic, whilst non-instrumental needs, fulfilled by using these technologies, such as interacting with relevant others, remained fairly constant throughout the study. Drawing on the results of the study, strategies for fostering the digital inclusion and well-being of older people in Brazil that go beyond telecenters are suggested.     

The evitability of software patents

Responding to Kenneth Nichols' article in Computer (“The Age of Software Patents”, April 1999, pp. 25-31), the author disputes the two claims: “software patents are neither inherently good nor bad” and “software patents are here to stay.” The author thinks software patents are not impersonal technology, but rather a part of an intellectual patent system that is a social artifact. Because all social artifacts are fair game for judgments, software patents fall into that category. Not only does the author think it reasonable that an interested party examine the ethics and morality of any branch of the legal system (of which software patents and copyrights are a part), but he feels professionals in relevant areas have a social duty to do so. After exploring several arguments for software patents and copyrights, the author settles on the evitability of software patents, though he points out this does not ensure they will be avoided. However, he thinks there are good arguments for avoiding software patents for other more practical and just forms of monopoly for software     

Simulation and fabrication of piezoresistive membrane type MEMS strain sensors

Two piezoresistive (n-polysilicon) strain sensors on a thin Si₃N₄/SiO₂ membrane with improved sensitivity were successfully fabricated by using MEMS technology. The primary difference between the two designs was the number of strips of the polysilicon patterns. For each design, a doped n-polysilicon sensing element was patterned over a thin 3 μm Si₃N₄/SiO₂ membrane. A 1000×1000 μm² window in the silicon wafer was etched to free the thin membrane from the silicon wafer. The intent of this design was to fabricate a flexible MEMS strain sensor similar in function to a commercial metal foil strain gage. A finite element model of this geometry indicates that strains in the membrane will be higher than strains in the surrounding silicon. The values of nominal resistance of the single strip sensor and the multi-strip sensor were 4.6 and 8.6 kΩ, respectively. To evaluate thermal stability and sensing characteristics, the temperature coefficient of resistance [TCR=(ΔR/R₀)/ΔT] and the gage factor [GF=(ΔR/R₀)/] for each design were evaluated. The sensors were heated on a hot plate to measure the TCR. The sensors were embedded in a vinyl ester epoxy plate to determine the sensor sensitivity. The TCR was 7.5×10⁻⁴ and 9.5×10⁻⁴/°C for the single strip and the multi-strip pattern sensors. The gage factor was as high as 15 (bending) and 13 (tension) for the single strip sensor, and 4 (bending) and 21 (tension) for the multi-strip sensor. The sensitivity of these MEMS sensors is much higher than the sensitivity of commercial metal foil strain gages and strain gage alloys.     

Triggered Updates for Temporal Consistency in Real-Time Databases

A real-time database systemhas temporal consistency constraints in addition to timing constraints.The timing constraints require a transaction to be completedby a specified deadline, and the temporal consistency constraintsrequire that temporal data read by a transaction be up-to-date.If a transaction reads out-of-date data, it will become temporallyinconsistent. A real-time database system consists of differenttypes of temporal data objects, including derived objects. Thevalue of a derived object is computed from a set of other objects,known as the read-set of the derived object. The derived objectmay not always reflect the current state of its read-set; a derivedobject can become out-of-date even if its read-set is up-to-date.Any subsequent transaction reading the derived object will thenbecome temporally inconsistent. In this case, in order to readup-to-date objects, a transaction will have to wait until someother transaction updates the out-of-date object. However, indoing so, the waiting transaction may miss its deadline, particularlyif the update is not periodic but instead arrives randomly. Wepropose to update the outdated objects so that not only is thetemporal consistency improved, but also the number of misseddeadlines does not increase significantly, and as a result thereis an overall improvement in the performance of the system. Wepropose, implement and study a novel approach, to be known astriggered updates, to improve temporal consistency in firm real-timedatabase systems when updates are not periodic. We identify propertiesof triggered updates and explain how they work by giving bothan intuitive and a probabilistic analysis. We present strategiesfor generating triggered updates, discuss their suitability invarious contexts and perform a detailed simulation study to evaluatetheir performance. Results show that it is possible to improvetemporal consistency without degrading the timeliness of real-time database systems to a great deal.     

ONTRACK: Dynamically adapting music playback to support navigation

Listening to music on personal, digital devices whilst mobile is an enjoyable, everyday activity. We explore a scheme for exploiting this practice to immerse listeners in navigation cues. Our prototype, ONTRACK, continuously adapts audio, modifying the spatial balance and volume to lead listeners to their target destination. First we report on an initial lab-based evaluation that demonstrated the approach’s efficacy: users were able to complete tasks within a reasonable time and their subjective feedback was positive. Encouraged by these results we constructed a handheld prototype. Here, we discuss this implementation and the results of field-trials. These indicate that even with a low-fidelity realisation of the concept, users can quite effectively navigate complicated routes.

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