A continuous-wave hybrid AlGaInAs-silicon evanescent laser

We report a novel laser architecture, the hybrid silicon evanescent laser (SEL), that utilizes offset AlGaInAs quantum wells (QWs) bonded to a silicon waveguide. The silicon waveguide is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer using a complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible process, and is subsequently bonded with the AlGaInAs QW structure using low temperature O/sub 2/ plasma-assisted wafer bonding. The optical mode in the SEL is predominantly confined in the passive silicon waveguide and evanescently couples into the III-V active region providing optical gain. The SEL lases continuous wave (CW) at 1568 nm with a threshold of 23 mW. The maximum temperature for CW operation is 60/spl deg/C. The maximum single-sided fiber-coupled CW output power at room temperature is 4.5 mW.     

Background Checks: Series introduction

Networks dominate today's computing landscape and commercial technical protection is lagging behind attack technology. As a result, protection programme success depends more on prudent management decisions than on the selection of technical safeguards. Managing Network Security takes a management view of protection and seeks to reconcile the need for security with the limitations of technology.     

Psychological Research Online: Report of Board of Scientific Affairs' Advisory Group on the Conduct of Research on the Internet.

As the Internet has changed communication, commerce, and the distribution of information, so too it is changing psychological research. Psychologists can observe new or rare phenomena online and can do research on traditional psychological topics more efficiently, enabling them to expand the scale and scope of their research. Yet these opportunities entail risk both to research quality and to human subjects. Internet research is inherently no more risky than traditional observational, survey, or experimental methods. Yet the risks and safeguards against them will differ from those characterizing traditional research and will themselves change over time. This article describes some benefits and challenges of conducting psychological research via the Internet and offers recommendations to both researchers and institutional review boards for dealing with them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

ECG compression using long-term prediction

A new algorithm for ECG signal compression is introduced. The compression system is based on the subautoregression (SAR) model, known also as the long-term prediction (LTP) model. The periodicity of the ECG signal is employed in order to further reduce redundancy, thus yielding high compression ratios. The suggested algorithm was evaluated using an in-house database. Very low bit rates on the order of 70 b/s are achieved with a relatively low reconstruction error (percent RMS difference-PRD) of less than 10%. The algorithm was compared, using the same database, with the conventional linear prediction (short-term prediction-STP) method, and was found superior at any bit rate. The suggested algorithm can be considered a generalization of the recently published average beat subtraction method     

A general approach for obtaining joint representations in signalanalysis. II. General class, mean and local values, and bandwidth

For pt.I see ibid., vol.44, no.5, p.1080-90 (1996). Using the method developed in Cohen (1996) (Part I), the concepts of instantaneous frequency and group delay are generalized to arbitrary variables; in addition, new expressions for mean values and bandwidths are obtained. The kernel method is used to define a general class for arbitrary variables. As in the time-frequency case, the general class generates all possible distributions. The method is also formulated in terms of the local autocorrelation function     

Compression of multichannel ECG through multichannel long-termprediction

The need for efficient coding of ECG signals is continually increasing with modern use of long-term monitoring and telemedicine. Here, the authors present an algorithm based on long-term prediction (LTP) compression. The single-channel LTP algorithm has been generalized to the multichannel case and is called the MC-LTP algorithm. This algorithm compresses PQRST beats using a pattern codebook with “typical” beats     

Charge control: modeling, analysis, and design

There are many ways to use the inductor current of a PWM converter as part of its feedback control mechanism. A simple and widely used method is peak current-mode control which uses the instantaneous inductor current as part of the control signals. Charge control is a special type of current-mode control. It uses the integration of the on-time inductor current as the feedback control signal. The characteristics of charge control are studied. A complete small-signal analysis is performed for the control scheme. Subharmonic oscillation similar to that of peak current-mode control is found, and the relationship between subharmonic oscillation and the line/load condition of charge control is defined. Based on the analysis, design guidelines which guarantee the stability of the control system under given line and load ranges are proposed. The small-signal model was confirmed experimentally