Air-bridge microbolometer for far-infrared detection

A new microbolometer for far-infrared detection has been fabricated that allows an increase in sensitivity of a factor of 4 over the best previously reported bolometer. By suspending the detector in the air above its substrate a reduction in the thermal conductance out of the device by a factor of 5 has been achieved. At a modulation frequency of 100 kHz this microbolometer has an electrical noise equivalent power of 2.8×10^−11 W(Hz)^−1/2. A thermal model is also presented that accurately fits the response of the detector

Self-heated thermocouples for far-infrared detection

A novel self-heated Bi-Sb thermocouple for far-infrared detection has been developed. The detector is suitable for integration with monolithic antennas and imaging arrays. The device is fabricated in a single photolithography masking step using a photoresist-bridge technique. This bridge technique has also been used to make microbolometers with lower 1/f noise than those made by two conventional masking steps. The thermocouples have a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 7×10^−10 W/(√Hz) and a 3-dB frequency response of 150 kHz

The Place of the Answering Machine in Institutional Interaction

Telephone conversations are unusual in several ways: messages must travel a distance, communication is based only in sound (where face to face encounters draw on visual clues), generally conversations occur only in dyads (caller-answerer), the only means of entry to these encounters is a summons-answer sequence (an unusual way for a face to face encounter to begin), and talking is the primary and often the only activity taking place in such an encounter. Telephony splits sounds from other senses, splits the dyad from society, and splits communication from other activities (Hopper 1992:41). McLuban refers to the telephone as the irresistible intruder that ignores the visual privacy provided by cubicles and offices, and any difference in the statuses of the caller and answerer (1995 :271). Identification and recognition of the interactants\u27 names and identities form an important part of telephone conversations; names particularly playa role in the opening of most telephone conversations. The name of the target individual is the telemarketer\u27s key to entering into an interaction, for instance. Professional callers identify a stranger-answerer by name and then launch inquiries that simulate acquaintance. The goal is to keep a potential consumer on the line against her will. (Hopper 1992:208) This relates to McLuban\u27s assertion that in a visual and highly literate culture when we meet a person for the first time his visual appearance dims the sound of his name. Whereas in an ear culture the sound of the man\u27s name is the overwhelming fact. (1995:31) In a telephone conversation, the name\u27s sound holds great significance. Perhaps the telephone is supporting McLuhan\u27s proposed societal shift from hot to cool; on the other hand, in a normal telephone interaction, there is not visual information available, and so the sound must become the most important aspect oft he conversation. As this example shows, the telephone as a medium raises some interesting questions about the nature of interaction. It also has implications for how an interaction will proceed. One technology associated with the telephone that has become increasingly inescapable in American society is the answering machine. While researchers in conversational analysis have used recordings of telephone conversations to explore rules of conversation, so far they have not paid much attention to answering machines. This may be because an answering machine message is not clearly a part of conversation. In a telephone conversation the caller and an answerer participate in an exchange. An answering machine allows the answerer to make the same statement to every individual who caUs, and provides time for any caller to deliver a single response. The telephone allows people at a distance to communicate; the answering machine allows busy people to communicate without coordinating an encounter. An answering machine is a medium for people to exchange information, to conduct business, and to plan and coordinate future interactions, face to face or otherwise. The answering machine, and related technology such as voice mail, has become a ubiquitous means of interacting with other people. It would make sense, then, for scholars to fit answering machine messages into the larger body of conversation theory. How does the answering machine fit into our idea of communication? When I began considering that question, I had to think about how I could best study answering machine messages, and fit them into an existing body of theory about conversation. Conversation analysis was the best way to pursue answers. The process of conversation analysis, in which conversations are recorded, transcribed, and described, focuses on social interaction. It begins with the study of the interactional accomplishment of particular social activities..., [focusing on] sequences of activities. (Drew and Heritage 1992:77) Ultimately, conversation analysis seeks to identifjr the structural features underlying the orderly construction of talk (Firth 1995a: ISS). To explore how answering machine messages might fit into conversation, I will consider commonly studied aspects of talk such as error correction, routines, speech acts, and turn taking with respect to data I collected in my own research

Las expectativas de vulnerabilidad en Australia

La posibilidad de que los refugiados sean admitidos en Australia se basa cada vez más en cómo se perciba su nivel de desamparo, sufrimiento y “merecimiento”, por lo que los hombres en particular quedan marginados después del reasentamiento

An Investigation of Impediments to Commercial Shellfish Mariculture in Virginia

A nationwide survey of shellfish mariculturists was used in conjunction with a literature review and review of state and federal laws and regulations, to identify impediments to commercial shellfish mariculture development. The results of the survey and reviews were utilized to identify likely impediments to commercial shellfish mariculture in Virginia and to develop recommendations to address the identified impediments, should Virginia wish to pursue efforts to enhance development of this industry. This study suggests there are state laws, regulations, and policies which act as impediments to commercial shellfish mariculture development in Virginia. Mar,y of the identified regulatory impediments result from the applicability of laws and regulations designed to manage and protect the natural resources and more traditional uses of the coastal zone. Because this study relies heavily on subjective input from individuals representing the mariculture industry and did not involve individuals who may have attempted to enter the industry and failed, it may not accurately identify all of the actual impediments to the industry\u27s development. However, the study should provide valuable input into any comprehensive state effort to enhance shellfish mariculture development in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Never/Nor: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Hartley Coleridge in Poetry’s Transfictional Worlds

This essay examines the poetry of father and son poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) with respect to the theme of transfictionality, a recent coinage in literary and especially fiction studies. While the term “transfictionality” has lately been used to refer to “the migration of fictional entities across different texts” (Ryan 365; Pearson 113), I suggest this term can also be applied more broadly to refer to texts that are at once mimetic and imaginary. Transfictional can also mean, I suggest, literary content that straddles the line between fact and fiction, i.e., between what is taken to be the 'real world' and an imaginary setting or ideal transmutation of apparently real content. The two Coleridges, Samuel Taylor and Hartley, both evidence a tendency to produce poetry that is transfictional in this sense, constructing Pantisocracy, an utopian intellectual colony in America, and Ejuxria, an imaginary kingdom based in the English Lake District, as examples of world-building activity that is not entirely based in either fact or fiction, but relies on the commingling of the two. By examining poetic writing that is transfictional as productive of both political and personal poetry, I hope to suggest in part both the transfictional nature of poetry's idealising tendencies, as well as its potential to be a form of world-building writing that should be seen as generically similar to (but still distinct from) narrative forms like prose fiction (especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy) and video games