Low-voltage phase modulation in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well opticalwaveguides

Reports GaAs/AlGaAs quantum well waveguide phase modulators with high phase shift coefficients, as large as 520 degrees per V mm. By operating at wavelengths far below the bandedge and applying DC bias the authors achieve large electro-optic modulation with low absorption loss in device lengths on the order of 100 μm and drive voltages on the order of 1 V     

Enhancing the transfer of inductive energy to imploding plasma loads with a single-step meatgrinder circuit

The transfer of magnetic energy to an uncoupled load inductor using a novel inductive storage and transfer circuit (single-step meatgrinder) is compared with two classical inductive circuits. The first is the inductor-inductor transfer via an opening switch. The second is a transformer circuit where the primary circuit is opened and energy is transfered to the secondary and the uncoupled load. For identical loads the new circuit is shown to provide a 90-percent improvement over the two conventional circuits in energy transferred to the uncoupled load. A low-current low-voltage experiment, where 35.4 percent of the initial inductive energy is transferred to an uncoupled load using the new circuit, is discussed. A physical design for the Air Force Weapons Laboratory Shiva bank, which accounts for voltage holding, coupling, and parasitic inductance in the switches, is also described.     

Supervision of interns and postdoctoral applicants for licensure in university counseling centers.

34 predoctoral interns and 25 postdoctoral psychologists who were applicants for licensure and were employed at university centers rated the supervision they received. Effective supervision was characterized by support, teaching, direct monitoring of the supervisee, and appropriate confrontation. Interns received more supervision and less evaluation than did postdoctoral psychologists. Licensure status of supervisors made little difference in supervision. Results are weakly congruent with theories and research on counselor development. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Electrorefraction in GaInAs/InP multiple quantum wellheterostructures

Reports the first absolute measurement of electric-field-induced changes in refractive index in GaInAs quantum well heterostructures. Even for wavelengths as far as 40 meV below the absorption edge, excitonic effects dominate electro-optic phase modulation. This effect close to resonance yields index changes two orders of magnitude larger than in bulk material. The authors find that the size of the index change, its dependence on applied voltage, and its behaviour with wavelength are well described in terms of the quantum confined Stark effect on excitonic absorption     

Depressive symptoms over time in women partners of men with and without alcohol problems.

In a sample of 202 adult women and their families, the authors examined the effects of their male partners' alcohol problems and antisociality, the women's alcohol problems and antisociality, family conflict, and offspring behavioral problems on the women's depressive symptoms over a 3-year period. The women's antisociality and alcohol problems were more strongly related to family conflict, offspring behavioral problems, and the women's depressive symptoms than were the men's antisociality and alcohol problems. The women's antisociality and family conflict most strongly predicted increases in the women's depressive symptoms over time. In addition, family conflict mediated the effects of maternal antisociality on the women's depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Time perception and time processing as an aspect of the therapeutic process.

Examines the subtle and paradoxical issues surrounding clients' perceptions and processing of time. This paper illustrates that, though time perception and time processing are uniquely individual tasks with widespread variation, it is the diversity of these processes that enriches therapy and can provide both client and therapist with a deeper understanding of adaptability and coping. Five guidelines and accompanying techniques are identified that offer specific methods of addressing and altering temporal processing related to distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The perceptual organization of texture flow: a contextual inference approach

Locally parallel dense patterns-sometimes called texture flows-define a perceptually coherent structure of particular significance to perceptual organization. We argue that with applications ranging from image segmentation and edge classification to shading analysis and shape interpretation, texture flows deserve attention equal to edge segment grouping and curve completion. This paper develops the notion of texture flow from a geometrical point of view to argue that local measurements of such structures must incorporate two curvatures. We show how basic theoretical considerations lead to a unique model for the local behavior of the flow and to a notion of texture flow "good continuation." This, in turn, translates to a specification of consistency constraints between nearby flow measurements which we use for the computation of globally (piecewise) coherent structure through the contextual framework of relaxation labeling. We demonstrate the results on synthetic and natural images.     

Hamilton-Jacobi Skeletons

The eikonal equation and variants of it are of significant interest for problems in computer vision and image processing. It is the basis for continuous versions of mathematical morphology, stereo, shape-from-shading and for recent dynamic theories of shape. Its numerical simulation can be delicate, owing to the formation of singularities in the evolving front and is typically based on level set methods. However, there are more classical approaches rooted in Hamiltonian physics which have yet to be widely used by the computer vision community. In this paper we review the Hamiltonian formulation, which offers specific advantages when it comes to the detection of singularities or shocks. We specialize to the case of Blum's grassfire flow and measure the average outward flux of the vector field that underlies the Hamiltonian system. This measure has very different limiting behaviors depending upon whether the region over which it is computed shrinks to a singular point or a non-singular one. Hence, it is an effective way to distinguish between these two cases. We combine the flux measurement with a homotopy preserving thinning process applied in a discrete lattice. This leads to a robust and accurate algorithm for computing skeletons in 2D as well as 3D, which has low computational complexity. We illustrate the approach with several computational examples.     

Probing interactions of the homotrimeric PII signal transduction protein with its receptors by use of PII heterotrimers formed in vitro from wild-type and mutant subunits

The homotrimeric PII signal transduction protein of Escherichia coli interacts with two small-molecule effectors, 2-ketoglutarate and ATP, regulates two protein receptors, the kinase/phosphatase nitrogen regulator II (NRII) and the glutamine synthetase (GS) adenylyltransferase (ATase), and is subject to reversible uridylylation, catalyzed by the uridylyltransferase/uridylyl-removing enzyme (UTase/UR). The site of PII uridylylation, Y51, is located at the apex of the solvent-exposed T-loop (E. Cheah, P. D. Carr, P. M. Suffolk, S. G. Vasudevan, N. E. Dixon, and D. L. Ollis, Structure 2:981-990, 1994), and an internally truncated PII lacking residues 47 to 53 formed trimers that bound the small-molecule effectors but were unable to be uridylylated or activate NRII and ATase (P. Jiang, P. Zucker, M. R. Atkinson, E. S. Kamberov, W. Tirasophon, P. Chandran, B. R. Schefke, and A. J. Ninfa, J. Bacteriol. 179:4342-4353, 1997). We investigated the ability of heterotrimers containing delta47-53 and wild-type subunits to become uridylylated and activate NRII and ATase. Heterotrimers were formed by denaturation and renaturation of protein mixtures; when such mixtures contained a fivefold excess of A47-53 subunits, the wild-type subunits were mostly redistributed into trimers containing one wild-type subunit and two mutant subunits. The resulting population of trimers was uridylylated and deuridylylated by UTase/UR, stimulated the phosphatase activity of NRII, and stimulated adenylylation of GS by ATase. In all except the ATase interaction, the activity of the hybrid trimers was greater than expected based on the number of wild-type subunits present. These results indicate that a single T-loop region within a trimer is sufficient for the productive interaction of PII with its protein receptors. We also formed heterotrimers containing wild-type subunits and subunits containing the G89A alteration (P. Jiang, P. Zucker, M. R. Atkinson, E. S. Kamberov, W. Tirasophon, P. Chandran, B. R. Schefke, and A. J. Ninfa, J. Bacteriol. 179: 4342-4353, 1997). The G89A mutant form of PII does not bind the small-molecule effectors, does not interact with UTase or with NRII, and interacts poorly with ATase. Heterotrimers formed with a 10/1 starting ratio of G89A to wild-type subunits interacted with UTase/UR and ATase to a lesser extent than expected based on the number of wild-type subunits present but activated NRII slightly better than expected based on the number of wild-type subunits present. Thus, intersubunit interactions within the PII trimer can adversely affect the activity of wild-type subunits and may affect the interactions with the different receptors in a variable way. Finally, we formed heterotrimers containing delta47-53 and G89A mutant subunits. These heterotrimers were not uridylylated, did not interact with NRII, and interacted with the ATase only to the extent expected based on the number of G89A subunits present. Thus, the G89A subunits, which contain an intact T-loop region, were not "repaired" by inclusion in heterotrimers along with delta47-53 subunits.