5,563 research outputs found
Systems, interactions and macrotheory
A significant proportion of early HCI research was guided by one very clear vision: that the existing theory base in psychology and cognitive science could be developed to yield engineering tools for use in the interdisciplinary context of HCI design. While interface technologies and heuristic methods for behavioral evaluation have rapidly advanced in both capability and breadth of application, progress toward deeper theory has been modest, and some now believe it to be unnecessary. A case is presented for developing new forms of theory, based around generic âsystems of interactors.â An overlapping, layered structure of macro- and microtheories could then serve an explanatory role, and could also bind together contributions from the different disciplines. Novel routes to formalizing and applying such theories provide a host of interesting and tractable problems for future basic research in HCI
Progress in Element Analysis on a High-Voltage Electron Microscope
X-Ray microprobe (XMA) and electron energy-loss (EELS) spectrometers have been installed on the high-voltage electron microscope (HVEM). The probe size has been measured and background reduction is in progress for XMA and EELS as are improvements in electron optics for EELS and sensitivity measurements.
XMA is currently useful for qualitative analysis and has been used by several investigators from our laboratory and outside laboratories. However, EELS background levels are still too high for meaningful results to be obtained. Standards suitable for biological specimens are being measured, and a library for quantitative analysis is being compiled
MIPS J142824.0+352619: A Hyperluminous Starburst Galaxy at z=1.325
Using the SHARC-II camera at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory to obtain
350 micron images of sources detected with the MIPS instrument on Spitzer, we
have discovered a remarkable object at z=1.325+/-0.002 with an apparent
Far-Infrared luminosity of 3.2(+/-0.7) x 10^13 Lsun. Unlike other z>1 sources
of comparable luminosity selected from mid-IR surveys, MIPS J142824.0+352619
lacks any trace of AGN activity, and is likely a luminous analog of galaxies
selected locally by IRAS, or at high redshift in the submillimeter. This source
appears to be lensed by a foreground elliptical galaxy at z=1.034, although the
amplification is likely modest (~10). We argue that the contribution to the
observed optical/Near-IR emission from the foreground galaxy is small, and
hence are able to present the rest-frame UV through radio Spectral Energy
Distribution of this galaxy. Due to its unusually high luminosity, MIPS
J142824.0+352619 presents a unique chance to study a high redshift dusty
starburst galaxy in great detail.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Recovering Grammar Relationships for the Java Language Specification
Grammar convergence is a method that helps discovering relationships between
different grammars of the same language or different language versions. The key
element of the method is the operational, transformation-based representation
of those relationships. Given input grammars for convergence, they are
transformed until they are structurally equal. The transformations are composed
from primitive operators; properties of these operators and the composed chains
provide quantitative and qualitative insight into the relationships between the
grammars at hand. We describe a refined method for grammar convergence, and we
use it in a major study, where we recover the relationships between all the
grammars that occur in the different versions of the Java Language
Specification (JLS). The relationships are represented as grammar
transformation chains that capture all accidental or intended differences
between the JLS grammars. This method is mechanized and driven by nominal and
structural differences between pairs of grammars that are subject to
asymmetric, binary convergence steps. We present the underlying operator suite
for grammar transformation in detail, and we illustrate the suite with many
examples of transformations on the JLS grammars. We also describe the
extraction effort, which was needed to make the JLS grammars amenable to
automated processing. We include substantial metadata about the convergence
process for the JLS so that the effort becomes reproducible and transparent
Schizophrenia and the progression of emotional expression in relation to others
Gaining an improved understanding of people diagnosed with schizophrenia has the potential to influence priorities for therapy. Psychosis is commonly understood through the perspective of the medical model. However, the experience of social context surrounding psychosis is not well understood. In this research project we used a phenomenological methodology with a longitudinal design to interview 7 participants across a 12-month period to understand the social experiences surrounding psychosis. Eleven themes were explicated and divided into two phases of the illness experience: (a) transition into emotional shutdown included the experiences of not being acknowledged, relational confusion, not being expressive, detachment, reliving the past, and having no sense of direction; and (b) recovery from emotional shutdown included the experiences of being acknowledged, expression, resolution, independence, and a sense of direction. The experiential themes provide clinicians with new insights to better assess vulnerability, and have the potential to inform goals for therapy
Modeling the iron oxides and oxyhydroxides for the prediction of environmentally sensitive phase transformations
Iron oxides and oxyhydroxides are challenging to model computationally as
competing phases may differ in formation energies by only several kJ/mol, they
undergo magnetization transitions with temperature, their structures may
contain partially occupied sites or long-range ordering of vacancies, and some
loose structures require proper description of weak interactions such as
hydrogen bonding and dispersive forces. If structures and transformations are
to be reliably predicted under different chemical conditions, each of these
challenges must be overcome simultaneously, while preserving a high level of
numerical accuracy and physical sophistication. Here we present comparative
studies of structure, magnetization, and elasticity properties of iron oxides
and oxyhydroxides using density functional theory calculations with plane-wave
and locally-confined-atomic-orbital basis sets, which are implemented in VASP
and SIESTA packages, respectively. We have selected hematite, maghemite,
goethite, lepidocrocite, and magnetite as model systems from a total of 13
known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides; and use same convergence criteria and
almost equivalent settings in order to make consistent comparisons. Our results
show both basis sets can reproduce the energetic stability and magnetic
ordering, and are in agreement with experimental observations. There are
advantages to choosing one basis set over the other, depending on the intended
focus. In our case, we find the method using PW basis set most appropriate, and
combine our results to construct the first phase diagram of iron oxides and
oxyhydroxides in the space of competing chemical potentials, generated entirely
from first principlesComment: 46 pages - Accepted for publication in PRB (19 journal pages),
January 201
Submerged in the mainstream? A case study of an immigrant learner in a New Zealand primary classroom
Immigrant children from diverse language backgrounds face not only linguistic challenges when enrolled in mainstream English-medium classrooms, but also difficulties adjusting to an unfamiliar learning community. The culture of primary school classrooms in New Zealand typically reflects conventions across three dimensions: interactional, instructional task performance and cognitive-academic development. All three dimensions are underpinned by the culturally specific discourse conventions involved in language socialisation. New learners may be helped by classmates or their teacher to understand and successfully use these conventions, but left on their own they may sink rather than swim. This is a case study of one Taiwanese 11-year old boy, 'John', who entered a New Zealand primary classroom midway through the school year. John's basic conversational ability was sound, but he did not possess the interactive classroom skills needed to operate in the new culture of learning. Selected from a wider study of the classroom, transcript data from audio-recorded excerpts of John's interactions over several months with his teacher and classmates are interpreted from perspectives derived from sociocultural and language socialisation theories. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the extent to which John constructed, or was constrained from constructing meaningful learning experiences, and suggestions for further research and reflection
Blue-Light-Emitting Color Centers in High-Quality Hexagonal Boron Nitride
Light emitters in wide band gap semiconductors are of great fundamental
interest and have potential as optically addressable qubits. Here we describe
the discovery of a new color center in high-quality hexagonal boron nitride
(h-BN) with a sharp emission line at 435 nm. The emitters are activated and
deactivated by electron beam irradiation and have spectral and temporal
characteristics consistent with atomic color centers weakly coupled to lattice
vibrations. The emitters are conspicuously absent from commercially available
h-BN and are only present in ultra-high-quality h-BN grown using a
high-pressure, high-temperature Ba-B-N flux/solvent, suggesting that these
emitters originate from impurities or related defects specific to this unique
synthetic route. Our results imply that the light emission is activated and
deactivated by electron beam manipulation of the charge state of an
impurity-defect complex
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