Tuning in to psychological change: Linguistic markers of psychological traits and emotions over time in popular U.S. song lyrics.

American culture is filled with cultural products. Yet few studies have investigated how changes in cultural products correspond to changes in psychological traits and emotions. The current research fills this gap by testing the hypothesis that one cultural product—word use in popular song lyrics—changes over time in harmony with cultural changes in individualistic traits. Linguistic analyses of the most popular songs from 1980–2007 demonstrated changes in word use that mirror psychological change. Over time, use of words related to self-focus and antisocial behavior increased, whereas words related to other-focus, social interactions, and positive emotion decreased. These findings offer novel evidence regarding the need to investigate how changes in the tangible artifacts of the sociocultural environment can provide a window into understanding cultural changes in psychological processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A 3D multilevel model of damage and strength of wood: Analysis of microstructural effects

A 3D hierarchical computational model of damage and strength of wood is developed. The model takes into account the four scale microstructures of wood, including the microfibril reinforced structure at nanoscale, multilayered cell walls at microscale, hexagon-shape-tube cellular structure at mesoscale and annual rings at the macroscale. With the use of the developed hierarchical model, the influence of the microstructure, including microfibril angle (MFA), the cell shape and the wood density (annual ring structure), differences between earlywood and latewood as well as microstructural arrangements and cellulose strength distributions on the tensile strength of wood is studied numerically. Good agreement of the theoretical results with experimental data has been obtained.     

Visible (660 nm) resonant cavity light-emitting diodes

The demonstration of the first visible resonant cavity light-emitting diodes (RCLEDs) is reported. The devices consist of an InAlGaP strained quantum well active region surrounded by AlAs/AlGaAs distributed Bragg reflectors. Linewidths from 0.9 mm (2.6 meV) to 45 nm (12.8 meV) were obtained by varying the cavity factor (Q).<>     

Fabrication of InGaAsP/InP buried heterostructure laser usingreactive ion etching and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

1.3-μm InGaAsP/InP buried heterostructure lasers were fabricated using Ch₄/H₂ reactive ion etching (RIE) for mesa definition and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition for blocking laser growth. Results show that high-quality lasers can be made using RIE, with threshold current as low as 10 mA. It was also found that a slight chemical etching of the RIE mesas was necessary to obtain lasers with as high quality as those fabricated entirely by wet etching     

Finite element computations of specific absorption rates inanatomically conforming full-body models for hyperthermia treatmentanalysis

The formulations used center on Helmholtz weak forms which have been shown to be numerically robust and to afford additional sparsity in the resulting system of algebraic equations. Practical solution of these equations depends critically on the realization of an effective sparse matrix solver. Experience with several conjugate gradient-type methods is reported. The findings show that convergence rate (and even convergence in some cases) degrades significantly with increasing matrix rank and decreasing electrical loss for mesh spacings which adequately resolve the physical wavelengths of the electromagnetic wave propagation. However, with proper choice of algorithm and preconditioning, reliable convergence has been achieved for matrix ranks exceeding 2×10 5 on domains having sizeable volumes of electrically lossless regions. An automatic grid generation scheme for constructing meshes which consist of variable element sizes that conform to a predefined set of boundaries is discussed     

Robust Formulations of the Cauchy Method Suitable for Microwave Duplexers Modeling

It is well known that a Vandermonde matrix generates an ill-conditioned system matrix when applied with finite numerical precision. This deficiency affects the Cauchy method by restricting its application to only lower order systems. This paper presents innovative, accurate, and robust formulations of the Cauchy method to rectify this limitation and make the Cauchy method suitable for the extraction of a high-order microwave duplexer polynomial model. The techniques employed are: the change of polynomial basis into the Krylov subspace and the precondition technique, both acting on the system matrix of the classic Cauchy method formulation. A novel formulation using the QR algorithm on the two characteristic functions of the duplexer and a suitable combination of the QR method and the precondition technique are then presented. Each of these procedures has been successfully verified by numerical application examples     

Adaptive modulation and MIMO coding for broadband wireless datanetworks

Link adaptation techniques, where the modulation, coding rate, and/or other signal transmission parameters are dynamically adapted to the changing channel conditions, have emerged as powerful tools for increasing the data rate and spectral efficiency of wireless data-centric networks. While there has been significant progress on understanding the theoretical aspects of time adaptation in LA protocols, new challenges surface when dynamic transmission techniques are employed in broadband wireless networks with multiple signaling dimensions. Those additional dimensions are mainly frequency, especially in multicarrier systems, and space in multiple-antenna systems, particularly multiarray multiple-input multiple-output communication systems. We give an overview of the challenges and promises of link adaptation in future broadband wireless networks. We suggest guidelines to help in the design of robust, complexity/cost-effective algorithms for these future wireless networks     

Amplification of femtosecond pulses in Er/sup 3+/-doped single-mode optical fibres

Femtosecond pulse amplification in Er/sup 3+/-doped single-mode optical fibres has been experimentally investigated. The effect of amplified pulse compression from 80 to 55 fs has been observed. The amplified pulse energy was evaluated as 5 nJ. Maximum gain for the amplified signal was 26 dB.<>     

Fault-tree analysis for system design, development, modification,and verification

A methodology that uses fault-tree analysis (FTA) techniques to assess the weaknesses of a new chemical/process design at any time during system development is presented. FTA provides a cost-effective means of improving or verifying the reliability and efficiency of chemical/process design. It evaluates the consequences of conceivable failure to indicate where improvements are justified. FTA techniques were used to model the failure modes of an existing control-room heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system of a large production facility. The fault-tree reduction revealed 129 single-, 434 double-, and 442 triple-failure combinations, any of which could cause system failure. Single failures and double failures consisting of an equipment malfunction and an operator failure error were targeted for design and/or procedural modifications. These modifications were then incorporated into the operating system design to enhance system availability. In an iterative fashion, FTA techniques were reapplied to the modified design and used to verify the adequacy of the proposed revisions prior to implementation. This resulted in a thorough review of system vulnerabilities and a clear understanding of how to correct them     

Sidegating in a GaAs MBE-grown HFET structure

The sidegating effect in a MBE-grown HFET GaAs structure is considerable and persists to large distances. On the other hand, the leakage current is very low. A model that takes into account the unusual features of sidegating in this structure and is consistent with other studies of similar structures is proposed. On the basis of the model, a change in the isolation process was implemented. This resulted in a large reduction of the sidegating effect and confirmed the main features of the model