Engineering the Thermoelectrical Properties of PEDOT:PSS by Alkali Metal Ion Effect

Engineering the electrical properties of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)(PEDOT:PSS)holds great potential for various applications such a...     

Who Experiences Foreclosures? The Characteristics of Households Experiencing a Foreclosure in Minneapolis,Minnesota

Much of the existing research on disparities in residential foreclosures provides strong, but not conclusive, evidence that minority households disproportionately experience foreclosures. Data commonly used in foreclosure research do not allow researchers to use household characteristics of foreclosed properties to test for disparities in experiencing foreclosure. This is a significant omission in the literature since understanding the types of households that most typically experience foreclosure might result in the creation of better targeted and more effective foreclosure prevention and mitigation programs. Using a unique data set this paper explores the characteristics of households that experienced a foreclosure in Minneapolis, Minnesota during fiscal years 2006 and 2007. Research results confirm that African American households disproportionately experience foreclosures, but also indicate that renter households, households with children and foreign-born homeowners are all over-represented among foreclosed households. These results have implications for how policy makers and practitioners address foreclosure prevention and mitigation efforts.     

Posttraumatic growth among Norwegian children and adolescents exposed to the 2004 tsunami.

This study examined posttraumatic growth (PTG), positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with trauma, in children and adolescents exposed to a high-impact disaster, after which their experience of secondary adversity was minimal. The study also examined whether reduction in posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) over time related to reports of PTG. There were 105 participants, age 6 to 17 years, who were directly exposed to the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. They were interviewed 10 and 30 months after the disaster—PTSS was assessed at both time points, and PTG was assessed at 30 months. The individual's subjective reactions to the event and concurrent PTSS (30-months post-tsunami) were independently and positively related to PTG, whereas the decrease in PTSS was not related to growth. Children and youth in this study reported lower absolute levels of PTG than those in other studies. Taken in sum, findings suggest that secondary adversities may influence posttraumatic reactions and ongoing distress, which are hypothesized to play a key role in the development of PTG. In the absence of such secondary stressors, continued distress in the form of PTSS may serve to catalyze the growth process. Implications for clinical practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The research productivity of academic psychologists: assessment,trends, and best practice recommendations

Research productivity affects the careers of academic psychologists. Unfortunately, there is a surprising lack of consensus on productivity’s meaning, measurement, and how to compare the productivity of one academic psychologist to another. In the present study, we review academic productivity research within psychology, and using a sample of 673 psychologists, compute six indexes of productivity. Most productivity metrics (publication count, citation count, or some combination of the two) were substantially interrelated and one (Integrated Research Productivity Index) was independent from years in the field. Female psychologists were equally as productive as male psychologists after accounting for years in the field, and pre-tenure psychologists showed steeper change-over-time productivity slopes than post-tenure psychologists. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for the use and measurement of academic research productivity.     

Peeping Hals

Robotics and artificial intelligence hold enormous promise but raise a variety of ethical and legal concerns, including with respect to privacy. Robotics and artificial intelligence implicate privacy in at least three ways. First, they increase our capacity for surveillance. Second, they introduce new points of access to historically private spaces such as the home. Finally, they trigger hardwired social responses that can threaten several of the values privacy protects. Responding to the privacy implications of robotics and artificial intelligence is likely to require a combination of design, law, and education.     

干扰对CDMA手机接收机测试的影响

手机测试中一个主要关心的问题是它在很宽动态范围内的响应情况。与模拟或TDMA手机比较而言，CDMA手机尤其如此。因为CDMA手机在很宽的带宽范围内具有80dB动态范围，这种大动态范围是CDMA技术的一个独特优点，CDMA手机和基站的发射功率平均起来要比其他技术都低。由于这种手机能收到-104dBm以下的信号，因此，规定频谱内的噪声会影响最低性能标准，如TIA/EIA-98C中列出的多项测试，所以了解干扰对CDMA手机接收机测试的影响是非常重要的。手机测试易受噪声影响在考查噪声对手机测试的影响之前首先应了解手机的结构。手机里既有…     

Three-Stage Thin-Film Superlattice Thermoelectric Multistage Microcoolers with a Δ<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis><Subscript>max</Subscript> of 102 K

Thin-film Bi₂Te₃- and Sb₂Te₃-based superlattice (SL) thermoelectric (TE) devices are an enabling technology for high-power and low-temperature applications, which include low-noise amplifier cooling, electronics hot-spot cooling, radio frequency (RF) amplifier thermal management, and direct sensor cooling. Bulk TE devices, which can pump heat loads on the order of 10 W/cm², are not suitable in these applications due to their large size and low heat pumping capacity. Recently, we have demonstrated an external maximum temperature difference, ΔT _max, as high as 58 K in an SL thin-film p–n couple. This state-of-the-art couple exhibited a cold-side minimum temperature, T _cmin, of −30.9°C. We regularly attain ΔT _max values in excess of 53 K, in spite of the many significant electrical and thermal parasitics that are unique to thin-film devices. These measurements do not use any complex thermal management at the heat sink to remove the heat flux from the TE device’s hot side. We describe here multistage SL cooling technologies currently being developed at RTI that can provide useful microcooling cold-side temperatures of 200 K. This effort includes a three-stage module employing independently powered stages which produced a ΔT _max of 101.6 K with a T _cmin of −75°C, as well as a novel two-wire three-stage SL cascade which demonstrated a T _cmin of −46°C and a ΔT _max of nearly 74 K. These RTI modules are only 2.5 mm thick, significantly thinner than a similar commercial three-stage module (5.3 mm thick) that produces a ΔT _max of 96 K. In addition, TE coolers fabricated from these thin-film SL materials perform significantly better than the extrapolated performance of similar thickness bulk alloy materials.     

Highly Efficient Rapid Annealing of Thin Polar Polymer Film Ferroelectric Devices at Sub‐Glass Transition Temperature

An unexpected rapid anneal of electrically active defects in an ultrathin (15.5 nm) polar polyimide film at and below glass transition temperature (T_g) is reported. The polar polymer is the gate dielectric of a thin‐film‐transistor. Gate leakage current density (J_g) through the polymer initially increases with temperature, as expected, but decreases rapidly at T_g ? 60 °C. After ≈2 min at T_g, the leakage is reduced by nearly three orders of magnitude. A concomitant observation is that the drain current (I_d)–gate voltage (V_g) hysteresis decreases with temperature, reaching zero at nearly the same temperature at which J_g collapses. As J_g drops further, the drain current hysteresis increases again but in the opposite direction. This combination strongly supports the interpretation of rapid defect annealing.