Review of Helene Deutsch: A psychoanalyst's life.

Reviews the book, Helene Deutsch: A psychoanalyst's life by Paul Roazen (see record 1992-97543-000). In this biography of over 391 pages, Paul Roazen describes the life of Helene Deutsch, seen by many historians of psychology as one of Freud's best-known and favourite students and a major contributor to psychoanalysis in her own right. Each of the three sections in the book concentrates on a major episode and station in her life: Poland, Vienna, and finally Massachusetts. Roazen carefully describes Helene's family background, her circle of friends, her romance with Felix Deutsch, and of course her relationship with Freud. The book reads much like a shortened psychoanalysis of Helene Deutsch herself. A good biography should not only describe an individual's contribution to a profession, but also this contribution should become understandable as an outgrowth of the cultural heritage, the Zeitgeist, and the unique life history of the individual. Roazen has clearly succeeded in doing that. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF ANISOTROPIC CONDUCTIVE FILM FOR CHIP ON GLASS PROCESS

Anisotropically conductive film (ACF) is a smart electronic packaging material that consumes minimal space for connecting integrated circuit (IC) chips to a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel or printed circuit board. It consists of an adhesive resin and fine conductive fillers such as metallic particles or metal-coated polymer balls. The fillers are compressed and maintain a certain elastic capability while conducted between electrodes. The size of the contact area and the shape of the fillers are important factors in determining conductivity. The process of applying ACF is modeled into three consecutive steps, and the stress and deformation states are studied by finite element analysis in each. In step 1 of the manufacturing process, external load is applied to compress the conductive particles at a temperature of 190°C so that the matrix resin is in a fluid condition. In step 2, an external load is maintained at this temperature to allow the matrix resin to solidify; then, the load is released and the particles spring back to create tensile stresses in the bonding resin matrix. The last step considers the bonded and conducting ACF cooling from 190°C to room temperature. The state of stress and deformation will be readjusted due to different contraction properties between the filler and matrix resin. The results presented in this paper show that changing the thickness of a coated nickel layer does not clearly affect the conductivity of ACF, and the deformation should be greater than 40% for the stability of conductivity.     

Attending to others’ posts in asynchronous discussions: Learners’ online “listening” and its relationship to speaking

Theoretical models of collaborative learning through online discussions presuppose that students generally attend to others’ posts. However, a succession of studies over the last decade has shown this assumption to be unwarranted. Instead, research indicates that learners attend to others’ posts in diverse and particular ways—an activity we have conceptualized as online “listening.” In this study, we take an important step forward in developing a robust theory of online listening by examining the relationship between how learners “listen” (access existing posts) and “speak” (contribute posts) in online discussions. Ten variables indexing four dimensions of students’ listening (breadth, depth, temporal contiguity and revisitation) and five variables indexing three dimensions of students’ speaking (discursiveness, depth of content and reflectivity) were calculated for 31 students participating in 6 week-long online discussions as part of an undergraduate educational psychology course. Multi-level mixed-model linear regressions indicated that responsiveness of students’ posts was positively predicted by how often they revisited previously read peer posts, and negatively related to a greater number of posts in the discussion overall. The depth of posts’ contents was predicted by the percentage of posts viewed that students actually read (as opposed to scanned). An exploratory follow-up analysis indicated that these listening-speaking relationships manifest differently over time for distinct subsets of learners (e.g., a decrease in variable pairs versus corresponding fluctuations around stable levels). Put together, results suggest that when students take the time to read and re-read their peers’ posts there are related benefits in the quality of the posts they contribute.     

Can seeking happiness make people unhappy? Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 11(4) of Emotion (see record 2011-18271-002). There was an error in the title. The title of the article should read, “Can seeking happiness make people unhappy? Paradoxical effects of valuing happiness.” All versions of this article have been corrected.] Happiness is a key ingredient of well-being. It is thus reasonable to expect that valuing happiness will have beneficial outcomes. We argue that this may not always be the case. Instead, valuing happiness could be self-defeating, because the more people value happiness, the more likely they will feel disappointed. This should apply particularly in positive situations, in which people have every reason to be happy. Two studies support this hypothesis. In Study 1, female participants who valued happiness more (vs. less) reported lower happiness when under conditions of low, but not high, life stress. In Study 2, compared to a control group, female participants who were experimentally induced to value happiness reacted less positively to a happy, but not a sad, emotion induction. This effect was mediated by participants' disappointment at their own feelings. Paradoxically, therefore, valuing happiness may lead people to be less happy just when happiness is within reach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postsecondary education preparation of traditionally underrepresented college students: A social capital perspective.

The messages and support that students receive regarding college preparation often varies by students' race/ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and generational status (Adelman, 2006; Freeman, 1997; McDonough, 2004; Venezia & Kirst, 2005; Wimberly, 2002). This investigation sought to understand the manner by which a social capital framework could help explain how information about postsecondary educational transitions was communicated to, and interpreted by, college-bound students in one large urban school district. African American college students retrospectively considered the people, both in school and out, who provided them with college preparatory information, support, and/or guidance. Data revealed that although students received encouragement from their social networks, there was a shortage of individualized, concrete, and comprehensive college planning. Findings suggest that college planning and preparation for students from traditionally underrepresented college populations must be more cohesive and focused toward providing access to academic, financial, and social information that is instrumental in the students' transitions to college. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strengthening and Room Temperature Age-Softening of Super-Light Mg-Li Alloys

Extremely light (density ~1.46 g/cm³) and highly formable Mg-Li alloys have been drawing research interest; however, their relatively low strength is discouraging, and thus, an issue to be addressed. This paper processes and evaluates four Mg-Li alloys: the first, a basic alloy with a nominal composition of Mg-11%Li-1%Al-0.5%Zn; the second, an alloy with only Be added to the first; the third, an alloy with only Sc added to the first; and the fourth, with both Be and Sc added to the first. This research achieves a high strength of ~240 MPa for Mg-Li alloys using the processes of solid solution treatment plus 90% heavy rolling. A subsequent natural aging process proceeded spontaneously and resulted in strength decay. Room temperature softening behavior is uncommon, but offers a convenient route for studying age-softening characteristics of metallic alloys.     

Text independent writer recognition using redundant writing patterns with contour-based orientation and curvature features

We propose an effective method for automatic writer recognition from unconstrained handwritten text images. Our method relies on two different aspects of writing: the presence of redundant patterns in the writing and its visual attributes. Analyzing small writing fragments, we seek to extract the patterns that an individual employs frequently as he writes. We also exploit two important visual attributes of writing, orientation and curvature, by computing a set of features from writing samples at different levels of observation. Finally we combine the two facets of handwriting to characterize the writer of a handwritten sample. The proposed methodology evaluated on two different data sets exhibits promising results on writer identification and verification.