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)     

Venom Peptide Toxins Targeting the Outer Pore Region of Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 1 in Pain: Implications for Analgesic Drug Development

The transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) ion channel plays an important role in the peripheral nociceptive pathway. TRPV1 is a polymodal receptor that can be activated by multiple types of ligands and painful stimuli, such as noxious heat and protons, and contributes to various acute and chronic pain conditions. Therefore, TRPV1 is emerging as a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of various pain conditions. Notably, various peptides isolated from venomous animals potently and selectively control the activation and inhibition of TRPV1 by binding to its outer pore region. This review will focus on the mechanisms by which venom-derived peptides interact with this portion of TRPV1 to control receptor functions and how these mechanisms can drive the development of new types of analgesics.     

Constance Kamii's research and recent math reforms

Constance Kamii. (1990). Multiplication of two‐digit numbers: Two teachers using Piaget's theory. [Videotape.] New York: Teachers College Press. ISBN 0–8077–3086–6, Cdn $86.     

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     

Scanning and Sequential Decision Making for Multidimensional Data–Part I: The Noiseless Case

We investigate the problem of scanning and prediction (ldquoscandiction,rdquo for short) of multidimensional data arrays. This problem arises in several aspects of image and video processing, such as predictive coding, for example, where an image is compressed by coding the error sequence resulting from scandicting it. Thus, it is natural to ask what is the optimal method to scan and predict a given image, what is the resulting minimum prediction loss, and whether there exist specific scandiction schemes which are universal in some sense. Specifically, we investigate the following problems: first, modeling the data array as a random field, we wish to examine whether there exists a scandiction scheme which is independent of the field's distribution, yet asymptotically achieves the same performance as if this distribution were known. This question is answered in the affirmative for the set of all spatially stationary random fields and under mild conditions on the loss function. We then discuss the scenario where a nonoptimal scanning order is used, yet accompanied by an optimal predictor, and derive bounds on the excess loss compared to optimal scanning and prediction. This paper is the first part of a two-part paper on sequential decision making for multidimensional data. It deals with clean, noiseless data arrays. The second part deals with noisy data arrays, namely, with the case where the decision maker observes only a noisy version of the data, yet it is judged with respect to the original, clean data.     

Epitaxy of FeAl films on GaAs(100) by molecular beam epitaxy

Intermetallics that coexist with III-V’s in the bulk are expected to form thermodynamically stable overlayers when deposited as a thin film. To the extent that adsorption kinetics do not play a role, these films should be abrupt and able to withstand high temperature processing. Some of these films have been found to be epitaxial after heating in vacuum. FeAl has been found to form pseudomorphic films on InP(l00) substrates and to grow in a layer-by-layer mode even when code-posited. To explore the role of stoichiometry and crystal strain, we have used reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) to compare the growth of Fe _x -Al_1−x on GaAs(l00) to its growth on InP substrates. In both cases RHEED intensity oscillations are observed at 200° C, indicating two-dimensional island formation and layer-by-layer growth. For both, the growth is pseudomorphic on an AlAs buffer layer, with any lattice constant change less than 0.3%. When the intermetallics were codeposited, the growth proceeded via double layer formation forx < 0.7 and via single layers for largex. The films were stable to 550° C. Subsequent growth of AlAs was three dimensional.     

The effect of Cu diffusion on the TDDB behavior in a low-k interlevel dielectrics

The effect of Copper on TDDB failure in a structure incorporating a low-k interlevel dielectric was studied theoretically and experimentally. Interdigitated comb capacitor structures were prepared with and without Cu metallization and stressed at 4.0 to 6.6 MV/cm at 150C. The samples without Cu did not fail to over 1800 hours at 4 MV/cm whereas the samples with Cu exhibited a median time to failure (t₅₀) of 45 minutes. At 6.6 MV/cm, the t₅₀ was 1.8 hours for the Cu free samples. This experiment demonstrated the importance of Cu in the TDDB behaviour of low-k dielectrics, but also demonstrated that the presence of Cu was not a necessary condition for failure. The effect of Cu diffusion on TDDB behaviour was studied in the context of the “Impact Damage” model. Both field assisted ionic diffusion and diffusion of neutral Cu was considered. It is seen that the behaviour at low fields near use conditions may have little relationship to the predictions obtained from the results of typical TDDB testing.     

Concurrent Formation of Metallic Glass During Laser Forward Transfer 3D Printing

In recent years, bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) have drawn much research attention and are shown to be of industrial interest due to their superior mechanical properties and resistance to corrosion. In spite of the interest in harnessing MG for microelectromechanical systems devices, there are limitations in manufacturing such micrometer‐scale structures. A novel approach for the fabrication of 3D MG structures using laser‐induced forward transfer (LIFT) is demonstrated. Inherent tremendous cooling rates associated with the metal LIFT process (≈10¹⁰ k s^?1) make the formation of a variety of BMGs accessible, including also various binary compositions. In this work, it is demonstrated that LIFT printing of ZrPd‐based metallic glass microstructures can also be performed under ambient conditions. X‐ray diffraction analysis of the printed structures reveals > 95% of amorphous metal phase. Taking advantage of the properties of BMG, high quality printing of high aspect ratio BMG pillars, and microbridges are demonstrated. It is also shown how a composite, amorphous‐crystalline metal structure with a required configuration can be fabricated using multimaterial LIFT printing. The inherent high resolution of the method combined with the noncontact and multimaterial printing capacity makes LIFT a valuable additive manufacturing technique to produce metallic glass‐based devices.