Demonstration of Sustainable Development of Groundwater through Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

Water Resources Management - Sustained pumping of groundwater can lead to declining water levels in wellfields and concerns regarding the sustainability of groundwater resources. Aquifer Storage...     

1.55 ?m multisection ridge lasers

A new 1.55 ?m wavelength GaInAsP laser is described: the multisection ridge laser. Pulsed thresholds were typically 40?80 mA. CW thresholds were comparable. The lowest measured CW threshold was 38 mA at 12°C. The laser operated stably in a single longitudinal mode (spurious modes down by ?16 dB) under fast pulse modulation with a prebias below threshold. Theoretical results based on a waveguide scattering theory are in qualitative agreement with the experimental results.     

Firearm storage practices and rates of unintentional firearm deaths in the United States

BACKGROUND: The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association recommend storing firearms unloaded and locked up to minimize the chance of injury. Although these recommendations appeal to common sense, no study has yet addressed whether firearm storage practices influence the risk of unintentional firearm injury. METHODS: Negative binomial regression analyses were used to assess the cross sectional relation between firearm storage practices and rates of unintentional firearm death in the United States, controlling for rates of firearm prevalence, poverty and urbanization. Recently available state-level measures of household firearm prevalence and firearm storage practices were obtained from the 2002 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Unintentional firearm death counts and population data came from the National Center for Health Statistics. RESULTS: Independent of firearm prevalence, urbanization, and poverty, a disproportionately large share of unintentional firearm fatalities occurred in states where gun owners were more likely to store their firearms loaded, the greatest risk occurring in states where loaded firearms were more likely to be stored unlocked. CONCLUSION: Our findings provide empirical support for recommendations issued by the AMA and the AAP that firearms should be stored unloaded and locked, and suggest that promoting safer storage practices could save many lives.     

26.5 GHz bandwidth InGaAsP lasers with tight optical confinement

By reducing the active-layer width of constricted-mesa lasers to 1 ?m, we have increased 20°C CW bandwidth to 16 GHz and the -60°C bandwidth to 26.5 GHz. The pulsed 20°C bandwidth is 22 GHz, indicating that the present bandwidth limitation is predominantly thermal. Optical transmission systems with bandwidths spanning the S, G, J, X, P and K microwave waveguide bands simultaneously are now possible.     

Is an armed society a polite society? Guns and road rage

BACKGROUND: While concerns about road rage have grown over the past decade, states have made it easier for motorists to carry firearms in their vehicles. Are motorists with guns in the car more or less likely to engage in hostile and aggressive behavior? METHODS: Data come from a 2004 national random digit dial survey of over 2,400 licensed drivers. Respondents were asked whether, in the past year, they (1) made obscene or rude gestures at another motorist, (2) aggressively followed another vehicle too closely, and (3) were victims of such hostile behaviors. RESULTS: Seventeen percent admitted making obscene or rude gestures, and 9% had aggressively followed too closely. Forty-six percent reported victimization by each of these behaviors in the past year. Males, young adults, binge drinkers, those who do not believe most people can be trusted, those ever arrested for a non-traffic violation, and motorists who had been in a vehicle in which there was a gun were more likely to engage in such forms of road rage. CONCLUSION: Similar to a survey of Arizona motorists, in our survey, riding with a firearm in the vehicle was a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behavior.     

'Road rage' in Arizona: armed and dangerous

Little is known about the relationship between firearm carrying and hostile behavior on the roadway. To explore a possible association between firearm carrying by drivers and hostile driving behavior we conducted a random-digit-dial survey of 790 licensed drivers in Arizona. In addition to demographic questions, we asked whether respondents had carried a gun while driving in the 12 months prior to the survey. Respondents were also asked if they, in anger, had personally made obscene gestures, cursed or shouted at other drivers, impeded another drivers progress with their vehicle, aggressively ‘followed another driver too closely’, or brandished a gun at another driver. We used multivariable logistic regression to explore correlates of hostile driving behavior while taking into account several demographic and behavioral characteristics. Overall 11% of drivers always (4%) or sometimes (7%) carried a gun with them in their vehicle; 34% report having made obscene gestures/cursed/shouted angrily; 28% report aggressively following or blocking other drivers with their vehicle. In both crude and multivariate adjusted analyses, self-report of engaging in hostile behavior while driving was significantly more common among men, young adults, and individuals who carried a firearm in their car. Our findings suggest that, at least among Arizona motorists, having a gun in the car is a strong marker for aggressive and illegal behavior behind the wheel.     

Objects, parts, and categories.

Conducted 4 studies to show that the basic level differs qualitatively from other levels in taxonomies of objects and of living things. The 4 studies show that (1) parts prevail at the basic level, (2) basic level categories differ by parts, (3) subordinate level categories share parts, and (4) parts vary in perceived goodness. It was found that part terms proliferated in Ss' listings of attributes characterizing category members at the basic level, but were rarely listed at a general level. At a more specific level, fewer parts were listed, although more were judged to be true. Perceptual salience and functional significance both contributed to perceived part goodness. It is proposed that part configuration underlies the various empirical operations of perception, behavior, and communication that converge at the basic level. Part configuration underlies the perceptual measures because it determines the shapes of objects to a large degree. Parts underlie the behavioral tasks because most behavior is directed toward parts of objects. Labeling appears to follow the natural breaks of perception and behavior; consequently, part configuration also underlies communication measures. Because elements of more abstract taxonomies, such as scenes and events, can also be decomposed into parts, this analysis provides a bridge to organization in other domains of knowledge. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pigtailed single-mode fiber optic light modulator in silicon

The performance of a light modulator at a 1.3 μm wavelength based on the plasma effect in silicon is described. The modulator is directly coupled to a single-mode fiber pigtail in a simple and robust package. The measured modulation index is 24% with a 3-dB bandwidth of 60 MHz, and the insertion loss is 5 dB. This modulator has applications in data acquisition from silicon sensors and other silicon ICs     

A polarization-independent silicon light intensity modulator for1.32 μm fiber optics

The authors have developed an integrated silicon light intensity modulator based on polarization-independent free-carrier optical phase modulation and mode filtering in fibers. A novel push-pull complementary diode pair are used for a twofold increase in modulation depth over a single diode device. Operation is demonstrated at a wavelength of 1.32 μm     

Designing a Crossbar Scheduler for HPC Applications

A crucial part of any high-performance computing (HPC) system is its interconnection network. Corning and IBM are jointly developing a demonstration interconnect based on optical cell swtiching with electronic control. Key innovations in the scheduler architecture directly address the main HPC requirements: low latency, high throughput, efficient multicast suppot, and high reliability.