Arrays of High Tilt-Angle Micromirrors for Multiobject Spectroscopy

Micromirror arrays are promising components for generating reflective slit masks in future multiobject spectrographs. The micromirrors, 100 mum times200 mum in size, are etched in bulk single crystal silicon, whereas a hidden suspension is realized by surface micromachining. The micromirrors are actuated electrostatically by electrodes located on a second chip. The use of silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers for both mirror and electrode chip ensures thermal compatibility for cryogenic operation. A system of multiple landing beams has been developed, which latches the mirror at a well-defined tilt angle when actuated. Arrays of 5times5 micromirrors have been realized. The tilt angle obtained is 20deg at a pull-in voltage of 90 V. Measurements with an optical profiler showed that the tilt angle of the actuated and locked mirror is stable with a precision of 1 arcmin over a range of 15 V. This locking system makes the tilt angle independent from process variations across the wafer and, thus, provides uniform tilt angle over the whole array. The surface quality of the mirrors in actuated state is better than 10-nm peak to valley and the local roughness is about 1-nm root mean square     

Modeling faking good on personality items: An item-level analysis.

Research has consistently demonstrated that personality inventories can be faked; however, there is disagreement about what effect faking has on the measurement properties of tests. This research examines the effects of experimentally induced faking on item-level measurement using polytomous item response theory. Military recruits were instructed to complete a personality inventory under 1 of 3 conditions: answer honestly, fake good, or fake good with coaching. A graded response model (F. Samejima, 1969) was fit to items from 3 personality scales. Although there was a large difference in latent personality trait scores because faking, there were few differences in the functioning of items across conditions. Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggest that faking leads to an increase in common variance that was unrelated to substantive construct variance. Implications for modeling and detection faking are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A history of the early days of personality testing in American industry: An obsession with adjustment.

Objective personality testing began with Woodworth's Personal Data Sheet in 1917. That test was developed to identify soldiers prone to nervous breakdowns during enemy bombardment in World War I (WWI). Soon after, many competing personality tests were developed for use in industry. Many of these tests, like Woodworth's, focused on the construct of employee maladjustment and were deemed important in screening out applicants who would create workplace disturbances. In this article, the authors review the history of these early personality tests, especially the Bernreuter Personality Inventory and the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale, and discuss the implications of personality testers' obsession with the construct of employee maladjustment. In addition, the authors discuss the industry's obsession with emotional maladjustment and how this obsession coincided with a cultural shift in norms relating to cultural expression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Remembering Arthur Kornhauser: Industrial psychology's advocate for worker well-being.

Arthur Kornhauser was an early industrial psychologist whose contributions have been neglected in written histories of applied psychology. Throughout his career, he was a staunch advocate for an industrial psychology that concentrated on improving workers' lives. This article describes his contributions to improving worker well-being in the research areas of testing, employee attitude surveying, labor unions, and mental health of workers. His most enduring quality was his outspoken advocacy for an industrial psychology that addressed workers' issues instead of management's prerogatives. On the basis of Kornhauser's accomplishments, a case can be made for him as one of industrial and organizational psychology's most important early figures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practical considerations for creating and using organizational survey norms: Lessons from two long-term projects.

Surveys of organizational behavior and employee opinion are widely used in most companies, but organizations that use surveys with normative databases (given that they are well developed) can reap additional benefits from organizational survey efforts. There is very little literature that speaks to the process of creating survey norms or that provides guidance to people who may use them. The authors’ goal was to provide such a resource based on their experiences creating and maintaining survey norms. They propose a 3-phase model for creating survey norms, including data collection, calculating norms, and publishing and maintaining norms and identifying factors within each of the 3 phases that can affect both the quality and interpretation of survey norms. Examples from previous normative projects are also included to illustrate the importance of these factors to both the quality and interpretation of survey norms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Would you work if you won the lottery? Tracking changes in the American work ethic.

Although many social scientists and political commentators have speculated that the American work ethic is in decline, the last longitudinal study of this issue was conducted by Vecchio (1980) on data collected over 30 years ago. Vecchio examined whether workers would wish to continue working even if it were not financially necessary (i.e., the so-called lottery question from the National Opinion Research Center survey) and concluded that there had been a significant decline in work ethic since the 1950s. In the current study, the authors used an updated data set that included data from 1980 through 2006 and found evidence for a declining trend since Vecchio’s study, although the decline seems to be leveling out. Demographic characteristics do not account for this apparent decline in shared sentiments about the importance of work for a productive life. The authors caution against drawing definitive conclusions, given the limitations of the lottery item as a measure of work ethic. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low cross talk design and simple fabrication process of electrostatic vertical comb‐drive actuators for positioning application

In this paper, different types of vertical electrostatic comb‐drive actuators are proposed. The aim of design is to minimize the cross talk between vertical and lateral motions with a relatively simple fabrication process, namely, with only two ICP‐RIE steps from the front side with layered masks. Three designs are analyzed by MEMCAD, a finite‐element modeling package, combined with a micromachining process simulator. After optimization based on the calculation, all types were fabricated and tested. The experimental results are qualitatively in good agreement with the calculations. Because of the excess undercutting in our ICP‐RIE machine, the supports were softer than designed. The displacement was larger than expected. According to obtained results, we can expect to generate a vertical force of 0.5 µN per tooth at around 50 V. The measured cross talk between vertical motion and the horizontal motion was 20%. The resonant frequency of a typical device is 9 kHz and the displacement is 1.5 µm at 50 V. Copyright © 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan© 2007 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A cluster analysis investigation of workaholism as a syndrome.

Workaholism has been conceptualized as a syndrome although there have been few tests that explicitly consider its syndrome status. The authors analyzed a three-dimensional scale of workaholism developed by Spence and Robbins (1992) using cluster analysis. The authors identified three clusters of individuals, one of which corresponded to Spence and Robbins's profile of the workaholic (high work involvement, high drive to work, low work enjoyment). Consistent with previously conjectured relations with workaholism, individuals in the workaholic cluster were more likely to label themselves as workaholics, more likely to have acquaintances label them as workaholics, and more likely to have lower life satisfaction and higher work-life imbalance. The importance of considering workaholism as a syndrome and the implications for effective interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new scanning MEMS mirror

This paper introduces the development of a new MEMS-based optical mirror, which performs optical scanning function with discrete reflection angles in an out-of-plane configuration. The device was fabricated through Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) process on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, followed by assembly with two metalised glass dies. The optical mirrors can be tilted by electrostatic forces between the opposite electrodes on the SOI and glass dies. The most outstanding performance that can be expected from the device is the discrete and therefore, reliable tilting angle of the mirror, which is guaranteed by its unique mechanical structure and the electrostatically driven mechanism. In this paper, the working principle of the new MEMS mirror was presented, followed by the introduction of device design, mechanical simulation, microfabrication process, assembly solution, and some testing results. The potential application of this new MEMS mirror is for light beam scanning or optical sensing (detection).