Deep Cover HCI

The growing popularity of methodologies that turn "to the wild" for real world data creates new ethical issues for the HCI community. For investigations questioning interactions in public or transient spaces, crowd interaction, or natural behaviour, uncontrolled and uninfluenced (by the experimenter) experiences represent the ideal evaluation environment. We argue that covert research can be completed rigorously and ethically to expand our knowledge of ubiquitous technologies. Our approach, which we call Deep Cover HCI, utilises technology-supported observation in public spaces to stage completely undisturbed experiences for evaluation. We complete studies without informed consent and without intervention from an experimenter in order to gain new insights into how people use technology in public settings. We argue there is clear value in this approach, reflect on the ethical issues of such investigations, and describe our ethical guidelines for completing Deep Cover HCI Research

Psychological type profile of religiously committed male and female Canadian Baptist youth: a study among participants at tidal impact

A sample of 479 female and 274 male religiously committed Canadian youth over the age of 11 years completed the Adolescent Form of the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTSA) within the context of a weeklong mission and service event sponsored by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches. The data demonstrated strong preferences for intuition among both males (75%) and females (66%), and strong preferences for feeling among both males (86%) and females (92%). Females demonstrated stronger preferences for judging (61%) compared with males (39%). Both sexes demonstrated similar preferences for extraversion (52% among females and 49% among males). The most frequently occurring type among both males (22%) and females (20%) was ENFP. The implications of these findings are discussed for youth ministry and for potential recruitment into ordained ministry

Geometric analysis of optical frequency conversion and its control in quadratic nonlinear media

We analyze frequency conversion and its control among three light waves using a geometric approach that enables the dynamics of the waves to be visualized on a closed surface in three dimensions. It extends the analysis based on the undepleted-pump linearization and provides a simple way to understand the fully nonlinear dynamics. The Poincaré sphere has been used in the same way to visualize polarization dynamics. A geometric understanding of control strategies that enhance energy transfer among interacting waves is introduced, and the quasi-phase-matching strategy that uses microstructured quadratic materials is illustrated in this setting for both type I and II second-harmonic generation and for parametric three-wave interactions

Generalized Uncertainty Principle Corrections to the Simple Harmonic Oscillator in Phase Space

We compute Wigner functions for the harmonic oscillator including corrections from generalized uncertainty principles (GUPs), and study the corresponding marginal probability densities and other properties. We show that the GUP corrections to the Wigner functions can be significant, and comment on their potential measurability in the laboratory.Comment: minor revisions; included journal referenc

Religiosity and music copyright theft among Canadian Baptist youth

This study examines the views of 706 Canadian Baptist youth (between the ages of 14 and 18 years) on the moral issue of music copyright theft, and explores the influence on these views of age, sex, Sunday church attendance, personal prayer, personal Bible reading, and conservative Bible believing. The participants were attending Springforth 2005 (a major Canadian Baptist Youth Conference). The data demonstrate a high level of acceptance of music copyright theft, with only 26% of the participants agreeing that downloading copyright music from the Internet without paying is always wrong. Employing multiple regression modelling, the data demonstrated that, as Canadian Baptist youth mature (grew older), as they became more familiar with Bible teaching (through frequent reading of the scriptures), and as they became more integrated within the community of faith (through frequent Sunday church attendance), so they take a tougher line against music copyright theft

Variational quantum Monte Carlo simulations with tensor-network states

We show that the formalism of tensor-network states, such as the matrix product states (MPS), can be used as a basis for variational quantum Monte Carlo simulations. Using a stochastic optimization method, we demonstrate the potential of this approach by explicit MPS calculations for the transverse Ising chain with up to N=256 spins at criticality, using periodic boundary conditions and D*D matrices with D up to 48. The computational cost of our scheme formally scales as ND^3, whereas standard MPS approaches and the related density matrix renromalization group method scale as ND^5 and ND^6, respectively, for periodic systems.Comment: 4+ pages, 2 figures. v2: improved data, comparisons with exact results, to appear in Phys Rev Let

Modelling Gaia CCD pixels with Silvaco 3D engineering software

Gaia will only achieve its unprecedented measurement accuracy requirements with detailed calibration and correction for radiation damage. We present our Silvaco 3D engineering software model of the Gaia CCD pixel and two of its applications for Gaia: (1) physically interpreting supplementary buried channel (SBC) capacity measurements (pocket-pumping and first pixel response) in terms of e2v manufacturing doping alignment tolerances; and (2) deriving electron densities within a charge packet as a function of the number of constituent electrons and 3D position within the charge packet as input to microscopic models being developed to simulate radiation damage.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, contributed poster, appearing in proceedings of the ELSA conference: Gaia, at the frontiers of astrometry, 7-11 June 2010, S\`evres, Pari