Hidden covariation detection produces faster, not slower, social judgments.

In P. Lewicki's (1986b) demonstration of hidden covariation detection (HCD), responses of participants were slower to faces that corresponded with a covariation encountered previously than to faces with novel covariations. This slowing contrasts with the typical finding that priming leads to faster responding and suggests that HCD is a unique type of implicit process. The authors extended Lewicki's methodology and showed that participants exposed to nonsalient covariations between hair length and personality were subsequently faster to respond to faces with those covariations than to faces without, despite lack of awareness of the critical covariations. This result confirms that people can detect subtle relationships between features of stimuli and that, as with other types of implicit cognition, this detection facilitates responding. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Breadboard testing of a phase-conjugate engine with an interferometric wave-front sensor and a microelectromechanical systems-based spatial light modulator

Laboratory breadboard results of a high-speed adaptive-optics system are presented. The wave-front sensor for the adaptive-optics system is based on a quadrature interferometer, which directly measures the turbulence-induced phase aberrations. The spatial light modulator used in the phase-conjugate engine was a microelectromechanical systems-based piston-only correction device with 1024 actuators. Laboratory experiments were conducted with this system utilizing Kolmogorov phase screens to simulate atmospheric phase distortions. The adaptive-optics system achieved correction speeds in excess of 800 Hz and Strehl ratios greater than 0.5 with the Kolmogorov phase screens.     

Language Independent Statistical Software for Corpus Exploration

In this report two programs for statistical analysis of concordance lines are described. The programs have been developed for analyzing he lexical context of a given word. It is shown how different parameter settings influence the outcome of collocational analysis, and how the concept of collocation can be extended to allow the extraction of lines typical for a word from a set of concordance lines. Even though all the examples are for English, the software is completely language independent and only requires minimal linguistic resources. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Exploring environments by hand or foot: Time-based heuristics for encoding distance in movement space.

In Experiment 1, blindfolded observers judged (a) the distance of pathways felt by hand and (b) the straight-line distance between pathway endpoints inferred from such exploration. In Experiment 2, blindfolded observers made corresponding estimates after traversing similar pathways on foot. Pathways were explored under three different speeds. Under both manipulatory and ambulatory exploration, there was substantial length distortion of inferred distance; the straight-line distance was increasingly overestimated with increases in the length of the explored pathway. With manipulatory exploration, slower movements increased length distortion, but duration effects proved secondary to effects of spatial extent. For ambulatory exploration, no duration effects were obtained. Observers used time-independent heuristics, that is, a footstep metric for estimating the pathway actually travelled and a spatial imaging strategy for estimating the inferred line between pathway endpoints. The studies establish length distortion as a general phenomenon in movement space and identify its major causes as spatial rather than temporal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Crystal gazing in computer graphics

We, the people, are in the midst of the age of the computer. We are at the beginning of the age of computer graphics. This article will crystal gaze upon a few of the areas of life which are beginning to be and soon will be very affected by computer graphics. Topics vary from homes and cities; hardware and animation; Congress and business; and architecture and drafting to art. These show that the future uses of computer graphics are limited only by the imagination.

Underlying the whole gamut is the theme that computer graphics must be user oriented! The application user must not be required to know anything about computers or their languages or how to manipulate complex mathematics!     

The thermomechanical processing of titanium and Ti-6Al-4V thin gage sheet and plate

A new method for producing low-cost titanium powder, the Armstrong Process, has proven to be a scalable process. The process, which reduces TiCl₄ vapor in a molten stream of sodium to produce pure titanium and NaCl, can also be used to in-situ manufacture Ti-6Al-4V alloy powder. Armstrong Process titanium and Ti-6Al-4V powders were used to produce plate by vacuum hot pressing. Also, thin gage sheet was produced by cold rolling solid-phase sintered titanium and Ti-6Al-4V powder compacts. Chemical analysis and mechanical testing revealed that processed Armstrong titanium and Ti-6Al-4V sheet and plate had compositions and properties similar to those of grade 2 titanium and grade 5 Ti-6Al-4V. For more information, contact John D.K. Rivard, Strategic Analysis, 3811 N. Fairfax Drive Suite 700, Arlington VA 22202; e-mail jrivard@sainc.com.     

Rigid design of fast scanning probe microscopes using finite element analysis

To improve the performance of atomic force microscopes regarding speed and noise sensitivity, it is important to consider the mechanical rigidity of the actuator (scanner), and the overall mechanical structure. Using finite element analysis in the design process, it was possible to increase the first resonance frequency from 950 Hz for the whole system to 23.4 kHz for the whole system. This constitutes a factor of 25 in resonance frequency and a factor of 625 in stiffness and, hence, noise immunity.     

Challenges for conservation and sustainable use in North America

Conservation will only increase as a focus for governments in the 21st century. Canada and the United States have been successful in conserving wildlife and habitats over the past 100 years through the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. This approach is not universally accepted, however, and there are challenges to sustainable use practices such as hunting and fishing. Herein, we discuss seven of the biggest challenges to conservation worldwide: an increasing human population; globalization; urbanization and the human-nature divide; novel ecosystems; connectivity; funding, fragility and resilience; and abundance and superabundance. We then relate these to the North American context.