An analysis of performance on the Rey auditory-verbal learning test after traumatic brain injury, and its association with reported everyday memory performance : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The current study was conducted in two parts. Study 1 examined the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) performance of 353 individuals who had been referred to an outpatient psychology clinic having sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI). Individuals were divided into subgroups based on their patterns of performance on the AVLT. Individuals with low trial 1 scores were divided into three groups based on their subsequent AVLT performance. Individuals with low delayed-recall scores were divided into four groups based on their performance on preceding AVLT trials. For the TBI group as a whole, significant correlations were found between AVLT scores and age, education, and general intelligence (as measured by verbal IQ). Study 2 investigated relative ratings of everyday memory performance on the Patient Competency Rating Scale). This data was available for 82 of the individuals in the initial sample. The relationship between reported everyday memory performance and test performance on the AVLT was examined for this group. No significant correlations were found between these two variables. Low correlations were found between patient and relative ratings on the PCRS. Individuals were divided in four groups based on their everyday memory and test performance. Individuals with low everyday memory performance were found to have a similar type and number of difficulties, regardless of their AVLT performance. The results of this study highlight the varied performance of individuals after TBI, both on memory tests such as the AVLT and reported everyday memory performance. The AVLT should not be used to predict the level of difficulty in daily life as the correlations are not significant

The distribution of chlorophyll in the western Indian Ocean during the northeast monsoon period, February 13-July 16, 1965

This report contains the observations of phytoplankton pigment characteristics made during ATLANTIS II Cruise No. 15 in the western Indian Ocean and its reaches during the period of February 13 through July 16, 1965. As pointed out in a previous report for this region (Laird et al., 1964), the observations should by no means be considered synoptic since short-term variation will occur in biological measurements. The value of the present observations is greatly enhanced by the fact that they repeat and extend the previous data from ATLANTIS II Cruise No. 8 for the area, but are taken at the opposite period of the year for all regions. The data permit only a first approximation of the relative fertility in the area, yet the seasonal contrast becomes an important consideration in the analysis and interpretation of the data. It is believed that this represents the first such large-scale survey for Indian Ocean waters.The National Science Foundation under Grant NSF-GP 82

Prospects for the future of narrow bandgap materials

Recently there has been greatly expended interest in narrow bandgap materials. Modern epitaxial techniques and the growing interest in nanostructures have provided areas of application for some of the unique properties of the narrow bandgap material. As always, one of the primary sources of interest is the small bandgap which makes them the material of choice for many applications in the infrared. However, in recent years their other unique properties have been the basis for a broader set of interests in narrow bandgap semiconductors. The type II band offsets (InAs/GaSb) have been the basis for novel tunnel devices and infrared superlattices. The very small effective masses inherent in small bandgap materials make them the obvious candidates in which to observe quantum confinement effects at larger dimensions than in materials of larger effective mass and wider gap. The ease of making electrical contact to some of the materials (ohmic contact to n-InAs) has made them the material of choice for electrical nanostructures. The ability to put in large amounts of magnetic ions to make magnetic semiconductors has led to a number of novel properties. The technical importance of a narrow bandgap and the unique applications promised by some of the other properties of these materials bode well for substantial research in narrow bandgap semiconductors well into the next decade

Transition-metal silicides lattice-matched to silicon

We have used a systematic search to determine all the possible transition-metal silicides that are geometrically lattice-matched to either the (100), (110), or the (111) face of silicon. A short table with the best possible matches is presented here, and a more comprehensive table including slightly worse matches is deposited with the editor

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall: Collaborative Screen-Mirroring for Small Groups

Screen mirroring has been available to consumers for some time, however if every mobile device in the room supports screen mirroring to the main display (e.g. a shared TV), this necessitates a mechanism for managing its use. As such, this paper investigates allowing users in small intimacy groups (friends, family etc.) to self-manage mirrored use of the display, through passing/taking/requesting the display from whomever is currently mirroring to it. We examine the collaborative benefits this scheme could provide for the home, compared to existing multi-device use and existing screen mirroring implementations. Results indicate shared screen mirroring improves perceived collaboration, decreases dominance, preserves independence and has a positive effect on a group's activity awareness

I Am The Passenger: How Visual Motion Cues Can Influence Sickness For In-Car VR

This paper explores the use of VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) in-car and in-motion for the first time. Immersive HMDs are becoming everyday consumer items and, as they offer new possibilities for entertainment and productivity, people will want to use them during travel in, for example, autonomous cars. However, their use is confounded by motion sickness caused in-part by the restricted visual perception of motion conflicting with physically perceived vehicle motion (accelerations/rotations detected by the vestibular system). Whilst VR HMDs restrict visual perception of motion, they could also render it virtually, potentially alleviating sensory conflict. To study this problem, we conducted the first on-road and in motion study to systematically investigate the effects of various visual presentations of the real-world motion of a car on the sickness and immersion of VR HMD wearing passengers. We established new baselines for VR in-car motion sickness, and found that there is no one best presentation with respect to balancing sickness and immersion. Instead, user preferences suggest different solutions are required for differently susceptible users to provide usable VR in-car. This work provides formative insights for VR designers and an entry point for further research into enabling use of VR HMDs, and the rich experiences they offer, when travelling

Work-In-Progress Technical Report: Designing A Two-User, Two-View TV Display

This work-in-progress paper previews how we can design interfaces and interactions for multi-view TVs, enabling users to transition between independent and shared activities, gain casual awareness of others’ activities, and collaborate more effectively. We first compare an Android-based multi-user TV against both multi-screen and multi-view TVs in a collaborative movie browsing task, to determine whether multiview can improve collaboration, and what level of awareness of each other’s activity users choose. Based on our findings, we iterate on our multi-view design in a second study, giving users the ability to transition between casual and focused modes of engagement, and dynamically set their engagement with other users’ activities. This research demonstrates that the shared focal point of the TV now has the capability to facilitate both collaborative and completely independent activity

Study of surfaces and interfaces using quantum chemistry techniques

There are a number of difficulties in elucidating the microscopic details of the electronic states at surfaces and interfaces. The first step should be to determine the structure at the surface or interface, but this is difficult experimentally even for the clean, ordered surface and extremely difficult for cases with impurity atoms (e.g., nonordered oxide layers). The theoretical study of such geometries and energy surfaces is the subject of quantum chemistry. We present a review of some of the theoretical techniques from quantum chemistry that are being applied to surfaces. The procedure consists of treating a finite piece of the surface or interface as a molecule. Ab initio calculations are then carried out on the molecule using the generalized valence bond (GVB) method (with additional configuration interaction), thereby incorporating the dominant many‐body effects. The reliability of these techniques is discussed by giving some examples from molecular chemistry and the surfaces of solids. The strengths and weaknesses of this approach are compared with more traditional band theory related methods and are illustrated with various examples

Ion implantation damage of silicon as observed by optical reflection spectroscopy in the 1 to 6 eV region

Optical reflection spectra of crystalline, sputtered, and ion implanted silicon specimens are presented. Characteristic aspects of the spectra of ion implanted specimens are related to lattice damage