Psychological Testing on the Internet: New Problems, Old Issues.

The Internet has significantly changed the way people conduct business, communicate, and live. In this article, the authors' focus is on how the Internet influences the practice of psychology as it relates to testing and assessment. The report includes 5 broad sections: background and context, new problems yet old issues, issues for special populations, ethical and professional issues, and recommendations for the future. Special attention is paid to implications for people with disabling conditions and culturally and linguistically diverse persons. The authors conclude that ethical responsibilities of psychologists and current psychometric standards, particularly those regarding test reliability and validity, apply even though the way in which the tests are developed and used may be quite different. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhanced H2-plasma effects on polysilicon thin-filmtransistors with thin ONO gate-dielectrics

This letter reports that passivation effects of the H₂-plasma on the polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFT's) were greatly enhanced if the TFT's have a thin Si₃N₄ film on their gate-dielectrics. Compared to the conventional devices with only the SiO₂ gate dielectric, the TFT's with Si ₃N₄ have much more improvement on their subthreshold swing and field-effect mobility after H₂-plasma treatment     

Nitridation of the stacked poly-Si gate to suppress the boronpenetration in pMOS

Nitridation to create nitrogen-rich layers in-between the stacked layers of the poly-Si gate to suppress the boron penetration for pMOS with the gate BF₂⁺-implantation is proposed and demonstrated. The MOS capacitors fabricated by using this nitridized stacked poly-Si gate have better thermal stability and much improved electrical characteristics     

The effects of fluorine passivation on polysilicon thin-filmtransistors

The fluorine implantation on polysilicon was found to improve the characteristics of polysilicon thin-film transistors (TFT's). The fluorine passivates the trap states within the polysilicon channel, as compared with the H₂-plasma passivation. The fluorine implantation passivates more uniformly both the band tail-states and midgap deep-state, while the H₂-plasma treatment is more effective to passivate deep states than tail states. A fluorine-implanted device can be further improved its performance if an H₂-plasma treatment is applied. In contrast to the H₂ -plasma passivation, the fluorine passivation improves the device hot-carrier immunity. Combining the fluorine passivation and H₂ -plasma passivation, a high performance TFT with a high hot-carrier immunity can be obtained     

Is the cognitive revolution all it is made up to be?

Comments on R. W. Sperry's (see record 1994-00012-001) article on the impact and promise of the cognitive revolution. It is argued that apart from lacking justification as a revolutionary perspective, the cognitive revolution is also found wanting in terms of recent developments in cultural theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Laser synthesis of copper oxides 2D structures with high Seebeck coefficient and high thermoelectric figure of merit

Semiconductors are considered promising materials of thermo-converters and thermo-sensors. The photons generated by a KrF laser source (λ?=?248 nm, τ_FWHM?≤?25 ns) were used for the synthesis of stable crystalline phases of copper oxides 2D single-layered semiconductor structures via the reaction of ablated copper atoms with oxygen molecules by reactive pulsed laser deposition (RPLD). Obtained semiconductor 2D single-layered structures of (23–75) nm thickness were deposited on 293, 600 or 800 K?<?100?>?Si substrates in oxygen atmosphere at 1.0, 3.0 and 5.0 Pa. X-ray diffraction analysis evidenced polycrystalline structures of the deposits reviled of two crystalline semiconductor phases CuO (002) and CuO(111). Semiconductor temperature trend was detected with variable energy band gap (E_g) in the range of (0.10–1.5) eV depending on substrate temperature, oxygen pressure and structure thickness. The optimum conditions were found out when the S coefficient was being homogeneously increased from 2.0 mV/K up to 10.5 mV/K and thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) from 0.0035 up to 9.0 in the range of (290–340) K. The interpretation of behaviour for these 2D single-layered semiconductor structures of thermoelectric properties was provided. Obtained 2D single-layered structures based on copper oxides with such high S coefficient and high ZT are exceptionally strong candidates for a new effective thermo-sensors and thermo-converters operating at moderate temperature. Moreover, RPLD serves as an up to date method for the synthesis of 2D structures with such superior thermo-sensor and thermo-converter properties. These 2D single-layered structures based on copper oxides are among the most promising candidates based on non-toxic precursors for “green” technology fabrication of efficient thermo-sensors and thermo-converters.

     

The relation of steady evaporating drops fed by an influx and freely evaporating drops

We discuss a thin film evolution equation for a wetting evaporating liquid on a smooth solid substrate. The model is valid for slowly evaporating small sessile droplets when thermal effects are insignificant, while wettability and capillarity play a major role. The model is first employed to study steady evaporating drops that are fed locally through the substrate. An asymptotic analysis focuses on the precursor film and the transition region towards the bulk drop and a numerical continuation of steady drops determines their fully non-linear profiles. Following this, we study the time evolution of freely evaporating drops without influx for several initial drop shapes. As a result we find that drops initially spread if their initial contact angle is larger than the apparent contact angle of large steady evaporating drops with influx. Otherwise they recede right from the beginning.