Efficient input and output fiber coupling to a photonic crystal waveguide

The efficiency of evanescent coupling between a silica optical fiber taper and a silicon photonic crystal waveguide is studied. A high reflectivity mirror on the end of the photonic crystal waveguide is used to recollect, in the backwards propagating fiber mode, the optical power that is initially coupled into the photonic crystal waveguide. An outcoupled power in the backward propagating fiber mode of 88% of the input power is measured, corresponding to a lower bound on the coupler efficiency of 94%

Tuna dreams revisited: economic contributions from a tuna enterprise in Solomon Islands

Tuna is one of the few renewable resources available on a large scale for Pacific island countries, and many countries want to develop onshore value-adding processing to generate more domestic economic development from tuna fisheries in the region. The case of Soltai Fishing and Processing (formerly Solomon Taiyo Ltd) provides many useful lessons about the benefits and pitfalls of this development strategy

The theory of an active magnetic regenerative refrigerator

The adiabatic temperature change with field which is limited to about 2 K/Tesla for ferromagnets near their Curie temperatures by the change of magnetization with temperature and the lattice heat capacity is discussed. Practical magnetic refrigerators operate on a regenerative cycle such as the Brayton cycle. This cycle can be executed through the use of an active magnetic regenerator, i.e., a regenerator composed of magnetic material that is cycled in an out of a magnetic field with appropriate fluid flows. The theory of these devices is predicted by solving the partial differential equations that describe fluid and the magnetic solid. The active magnetic regenerator is described along with the method of calculation. Temperature profiles for a normal regenerator and a magnetic regenerative refrigerator are shown

Ephesus and its coinage

The following is from an article in the Saturday Review, from Head's "Ephesus and Its Coinage," and serves to show the importance numismatics occupies as a key to historical problems

Acquiring a new discourse : using action research and sociocultural pedagogies to explore how a study group is able to support mature-aged open entry students in their first semesters at university : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

This research explores how a study group concurrent with mature-aged open-entry students’ first semesters on the campus of a research university could support those students as they acquired an academic Discourse. It addresses a gap in both research and practice for such students who very often arrive at university without academic preparation and must find support for their transitions through generic provisions rather than from interventions designed for their own particular needs based on the findings of focused research. Many of these students struggle to engage with the ways of being and doing within higher education, particularly with its expectations for teaching and learning, its worldviews, specialised language, and approaches to writing. This study used action research to develop and trial an intervention informed by Gee’s concept of Discourse incorporating a sociocultural pedagogy. As writing is a core component of an academic Discourse, pedagogy also incorporated a scaffolded genre approach to teaching writing. In line with action research, the intervention was continually modified in response to emerging data which were gathered primarily from participant observation and transcripts of study group meetings, the researcher’s reflective journal, participant interviews, and student texts. Findings suggest that while a study group does not replace academic preparation, it may provide something necessary and complementary for mature-aged students. The group provided a space in which many participants were able to identify expectations for teaching and learning they held and, through the reflection that was a core of the action research process, adapt those to something more appropriate for an academic Discourse. In the study group, students learned and practised specific writing process skills they did not have on entry which they then applied in their writing beyond the bounds of the group. Students also began to recognise themselves as legitimate participants in higher education. This study concludes with the implication that transition for mature-aged students is a holistic process of acquiring a new Discourse by immersion in a social grouping. A study group such as the one in this research may provide an opportunity for acquiring a new Discourse

The role of unusual conscious experiences in mental illness : an exploration guided by process models of symptom formation and by a hierarchical theory of personal illness : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University

The relationship between non-clinical unusual conscious experiences and mental illness was explored cross-sectionally in 104 users of community mental health services. Morris (1997) organised unusual conscious experiences and psychiatric symptoms according to the cognitive process errors believed to underlie them, and highlighted the role in the formation of symptoms of difficulties in determining the intentions of the self and others. Foulds's (1976) hierarchical theory of personal illness predicted that progressively more serious layers of symptoms would be experienced, in addition to those already present, as the ability to discern intentionalily diminished. Participants completed the Delusions-Symptoms-States Inventory and the Conscious Experiences Questionnaire, and their primary clinicians provided Global Assessment of Functioning ratings. Foulds's hierarchical theory was found to be valid, and the frequency of unusual conscious experiences and deficits in determining intentionality increased the higher participants were placed on his hierarchy. Global functioning, although unrelated to position on the hierarchy or symptom related distress (findings attributed to the failure to assess negative symptoms) was weakly associated with the frequency of unusual conscious experiences. Cognitive process errors were positively correlated with each other, consistent with the errors occurring in the course of a single underlying process. Predicted associations were found between: delusions of persecution and difficulties in determining the intentions of others; hallucinations and the attribution of imagined percepts to external sources; grandiose delusions and the attribution of the actions of others to the self; conversion symptoms and the attribution of actions of the self to external sources; dissociative symptoms and the attribution of percepts with an external origin to the imagination; and delusions (of grandiosity, persecution, contrition, and passivity) and the attribution of events to an unseen power or force. Predicted associations were not found for passivity delusions or delusions of contrition. The implications for dimensional conceptions of mental illness are discussed, and research recommended to isolate the trait component of unusual conscious experiences. The utility of the cognitive process and intentionality findings are discussed in terms of generating hypotheses for future research, and guiding cognitive behaviour therapy and clinical management