High gain and high peak power in planar waveguide lasers
We report enhanced peak power and gain for pulses in the 10-100 /spl mu/sec range, with specific peak power to 240 kW m/sup -2/ of electrode area at frequencies to 4 kHz. Pulsed small signal gain is increased by a factor of 7 relative to cw/long pulse excitation.
Enhanced peak power CO2 laser processing of PCB materials
Laser drilling has become a common processing step in the fabrication of printed circuit boards (PCB's). For this work, a recently developed enhanced peak power CO2 laser (~2.5 kW peak power, 200W average) or ultra-super pulse (USP) laser is used to drill alumina and copper coated dielectric laminate materials. The higher peak power and faster response times (than conventional CO2 lasers) produced by the USP laser are used to produce high speed alumina laser scribing and copper coated laminate microvia drilling processes. Alumina is a common PCB material used for applications, where its resistance to mechanical and thermal stresses is required. Here we present a comprehensive study of the melt eject mechanisms and recast formation to optimise the speed and quality of alumina laser scribing. Scribe speeds of up to 320 mms-1 (1.8 times current scribe rate) have been achieved using novel temporal pulse shapes unique to the USP laser. Also presented is the microvia drilling process of copper dielectric laminates, where the multi-level configuration presents different optical and thermal properties complicating their simultaneous laser ablation. In our experiments the USP laser has been used to drill standard thickness copper films (up to 50 μm thick) in a single shot. This investigation concentrates on understanding the mechanisms that determine the dielectric undercut dimensions.
The Alzheimer's Disease Home Hospice Knowledge Scale: development, validity and reliability.
BACKGROUND
Several instruments are available to assess knowledge about hospice care, but none specifically address knowledge about home hospice for persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD).


AIM
To develop and validate the Alzheimer's Disease Home Hospice Knowledge Scale (AD-HHK-S).


METHODS
A total of 107 Israeli family caregivers of persons with dementia (mean age=71.2; 73% female) participated in the study.


RESULTS
The AD-HHK-S included 28 true/false items assessing 3 areas of knowledge: knowledge about hospice, knowledge about home hospice, and knowledge about home hospice for AD. Good internal reliability was found, with Cronbach alpha ranging from 0.72 to 0.85. Good face, construct and predictive validity were found.


CONCLUSIONS
The AD-HHK-S proved to be a valid and reliable tool to assess knowledge about hospice care in the area of AD. It might provide an effective tool for palliative care nurses to communicate with family caregivers of persons with AD at the end of life.