Exploring the landscape of modern academic psychology: Finding and filling the holes.

Like any other domain of human activity, psychology has its fads and fashions. One consequence of fads is an overconcentration of resources on specific problems or approaches, which leaves other important problems or approaches (holes) underappreciated and understudied. This article is primarily about different factors (such as negativity bias, polarization of positions, focus on internal causes of behavior, dedication to a narrow view of what science is) that result in holes and about explorations of some of these holes that have interested the author. Psychologists should look more in the holes left behind by current enthusiasms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning Organizations in Construction

The transformation of organizations from production-oriented entities to proactive learning entities that continuously leverage the knowledge of the workforce is a primary objective of management researchers. This focus has significant relevance to the construction industry where production-related research has predominantly overshadowed organizational development research. As one effort to change this emphasis, the writers present a research effort designed to study current organization learning techniques and technologies fielded by organizations both inside and outside of the construction industry. Through a series of exploratory case studies, the writers developed a maturity model together with the Construction Industry Institute that provides construction organizations with a framework for developing a learning organization culture. The maturity model focuses on learning organization characteristics of leadership, processes and infrastructure, communication/collaboration, education, and culture at the organization, community, and individual levels. This paper introduces the results of that effort including a presentation of the learning organization maturity model, framework application, and the overall characteristics of a learning organization.     

Pervasive 2007: It's about the User

Pervasive computing is as much about the user as it is about the technology. So, the Fifth International Conference on Pervasive Computing emphasized desirability rather than just feasibility. Featured themes included user benefits, human-computer interaction, group and social interactions, context awareness, finding and positioning people and objects, and personal privacy.     

Creating a Student Centered Learning Environment at the University of Denver

A team of faculty members at the University of Denver changed the learning environment in key courses in the Department of Engineering from predominately teacher centered to student centered. Through this funded project new grading methods were implemented, classrooms were renovated and wired with studio layouts to facilitate learning, the Engineering Circuits Laboratory was rewired and instrumented for automated data acquisition and reporting, and two new pedagogical approaches were developed. At the onset of the project, six goals were established related to student learning. The introduction of industry standard hardware and software provided students with unprecedented hands‐on experience and project related activities stimulated faculty innovations in other current and future courses. Assessment results indicate that the new grading system improved the clarity of expectations for students before assignments were given resulting in increased reported motivation for learning in many courses. Even though course GPAs did not always reflect higher achievement on graded work, faculty members firmly believe that deeper understanding was achieved because more complex material was assimilated.     

The incompatibility of knowledge regimes: consequences of the material world for cross-domain work

In this paper, we argue that successful integration of knowledge across work domains in the short-term can mask the generation of long-term consequences. We explore a setting, the introduction of environmental considerations into semiconductor manufacturing, where the eventual adoption of common measurement artifacts and associated practices enabled knowledge integration, but failed to address significant underlying consequences. Drawing from observational, interview, and archival data we develop an understanding of the work practices of the Tech and EnviroTech groups as structured by the material world and broader collective conventions. We introduce the concept of knowledge regime to outline the differences in knowledge across these work domains. More specifically, we find that differences in the causal specificity and developmental time horizon of knowledge and the measurement artifacts that result contribute to the relative power of one knowledge regime over another. Understanding these sources of incompatibility provides insight into the design requirements of information systems as boundary objects for knowledge integration, but also specifies the potential limits to any design effort.     

Superconducting control for surge currents

Systems designed to use superconductors to limit fault currents in power grids are undergoing testing. The authors describe superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCL) which may be categorised into resistive or shielded core types. The features and operation of each type of device are outlined. Both the shielded-core and resistive types of SCFCL use the same amount of superconductor material to achieve a given limitation behavior. This is because the rated power per volume of conductor is determined by the product of fault-induced field and critical current, which is the same for both devices, assuming the same type of superconducting material is employed. The shielded-core limiter works only with AC currents and is much larger and heavier than the resistive SCFCL. While there is only one large program left in the low-temperature type of SCFCL, more than 10 major projects are under way worldwide on the high-temperature type of device. The main reason is the lower HTS cooling cost     

Role of cadherins in the transendothelial migration of melanoma cells in culture

This study examines the nature and extent of the relationship between stress levels and intentions to participate in a worksite smoking cessation program among male current smokers (n = 220) employed in an automobile manufacturing plant. A plantwide survey was conducted which measured job stress, nonjob stress, smoking behavior, and intent to participate. The results of polychotomous logistic regressions suggest that among the current smokers in this plant, job and nonjob stress were positively associated with workers' intentions to participate in a worksite smoking cessation program. Thus, contrary to the popular notion that stress diminishes the motivation to quit, employees under high levels of stress may be most receptive to educational interventions intended to persuade smokers to commit to quitting.     

A novel method for elimination of line-current harmonics insingle-stage PFC switching regulators

This paper studies a particular single-stage power-factor-correction (PFC) switching regulator employing a discontinuous-conduction-mode (DCM) boost-input cell and a continuous-current-mode (CCM) forward output cell. Although this single-stage PFC regulator can provide a reasonably high power factor when its PFC stage is operating in discontinuous mode, substantial reduction in line-current harmonics is possible by applying a suitable frequency-modulation scheme. This paper derives a frequency-modulation scheme and proposes a practical implementation using a simple translinear analog circuit. A quantitative analysis on the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the line current when the circuit is subject to a limited range of frequency variations is presented along with some considerations for practical design. Experimental data obtained from a prototype confirms the effectiveness of the proposed frequency-modulation scheme. The proposed analog translinear circuit allows custom integrated circuit implementation, making it a viable low-cost solution to the elimination of line-current harmonics in switching regulators