Home environment and cognitive development in the first 3 years of life: A collaborative study involving six sites and three ethnic groups in North America.

Attempted to examine the generalizability of environment/development relationships among 3 ethnic groups across the first 3 years of life. Social status did not show a consistent relationship to either quality of home environment or children's developmental status across the various groups. Results indicated a fairly consistent relationship between HOME scores and children's developmental status, although there were some ethnic and social status differences in the relationship. Measures of specific aspects of the child's home environment, such as parental responsivity and availability of stimulating play materials, were more strongly related to child developmental status than global measures of environmental quality such as SES. When the child's developmental status and early home environment were both very low, the likelihood of poor developmental outcomes was markedly increased compared with cases when only one was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic network management for next‐generation networks

To accommodate the proliferation of heterogeneous network models and protocols, the use of semantic technologies to enable an abstract treatment of networks is proposed. Network adapters are employed to lift network specific data into a semantic representation. Semantic reasoning integrates the disparate network models and protocols into a common data model by making intelligent inferences from low‐level network and device details. Automatic discovery of new devices, monitoring of device state, and invocation of device actions in a generic fashion that is agnostic of network types is enabled. A prototype system called SNoMAC is described that employs the proposed approach operating over UPnP, TR‐069, and heterogeneous sensors. These sensors are integrated by means of a sensor middleware named SIXTH that augments the capabilities of SNoMAC to allow for intelligent management and configuration of a wide variety of sensor devices. A major benefit of this approach is that the addition of new models, protocols, or sensor types merely involves the development of a new network adapter based on an ontology. Additionally, the semantic representation of the network and associated data allows for a variety of client interfaces to facilitate human input to the management and monitoring of the system.     

Corrosion behaviour of duplex stainless steels containing minor ruthenium additions in reducing acid media

The dissolution behaviour, as well as the time, potential and concentration dependence of HSO _– ⁴ SO _2t- ⁴ and Cl^– accumulations measured by an in situ radiotracer method on surface oxide-layers of duplex stainless steels containing various amounts of ruthenium as additive are presented and discussed. Several independent techniques, such as mass loss tests, potentiodynamic responses, radiotracer and ICP methods, were used to characterize the complex features of the passivation phenomena of steels modified with ruthenium. The experimental results reveal that the interaction of bisulfate/sulfate ions with passive oxide layer is stronger than those of chloride ions on the stainless steels studied. Both the extent and the strong character of bisulfate/sulfate accumulation are more likely related to the redistribution of the main alloying components (Cr, Ni, Mo) as well as the Ru in the surface oxide-film formed on steels passivated spontaneously in dilute HCl and H₂SO₄. It is found that the ruthenium additions to the base duplex stainless steel significantly increase the corrosion resistance in reducing acid environments. There is evidence of anodic inhibition and this seems to be responsible for the observed increased corrosion resistance of the duplex stainless steels with small ruthenium additions.     

Determination and the no-free-lunch paradox

We discuss the no-free-lunch NFL theorem for supervised learning as a logical paradox--that is, as a counterintuitive result that is correctly proven from apparently incontestable assumptions. We show that the uniform prior that is used in the proof of the theorem has a number of unpalatable consequences besides the NFL theorem, and propose a simple definition of determination (by a learning set of given size) that casts additional suspicion on the utility of this assumption for the prior. Whereas others have suggested that the assumptions of the NFL theorem are not practically realistic, we show these assumptions to be at odds with supervised learning in principle. This analysis suggests a route toward the establishment of a more realistic prior probability for use in the extended Bayesian framework.     

Texture of rehydrated dried bell peppers modified by low-temperature blanching and calcium addition

Diced green bell pepper was blanched twice, once at 51–79 °C for 19–61 min, and once at 95 °C for 3 min, and dried. The firmness of rehydrated samples was measured by puncture, and optimum conditions assessed by response surface methodology. The optimized model showed that, blanching at 65 °C for 49 min gave a 64% increase in puncture force over the control. The optimum temperature was used to evaluate the effect of adding CaCl₂. The dices were blanched twice, once at 65 °C for 3 min in either 0 or 4% CaCl₂, secondly in either 0 or 2% CaCl₂ solution at 95 °C for 3 min. In the second case the dices had been held at room temperature for 0–30 min before treatment. Adding CaCl₂ increased puncture force significantly ( P  ≤ 0.05). The best results, those which gave greatest firmness, were obtained by blanching at 65 °C for 3 min in 4% CaCl₂, holding for 16 min after blanching, followed by a secondary blanching at 95 °C in 2% CaCl₂.     

Electrodeposition and characterization of sacrificial copper-manganese alloy coatings: Part II. Structural,mechanical, and corrosion-resistance properties

The structure and properties of electrodeposited Mn-rich Cu-Mn coatings were studied in order to assess their potential to provide sacrificial galvanic protection to steels. It is found that a small amount of codeposited copper can stabilize the ductile as-deposited centered tetragonal γ′ phase against roomtemperature recrystallization to the stable bcc α phase. The time to transformation is increasingly delayed with increasing copper content. Phase transformation of crystalline films does not follow the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov equation for nucleation and growth transformation. Amorphous coatings do not show any structural transformation at room temperature. Nanomechanical and tribological measurements showed that Cu-Mn coatings have a lower friction coefficient than reference Cd coatings. Cu codeposition reduces the coating’s hardness and elastic modulus and increases the resistance to plastic penetration with respect to pure Mn. Cu-Mn coatings show a barrier or passive behavior under anodic polarization, while the sacrificial characteristics are still preserved. The corrosion appears uniform, and the formation of MnO₂ and Cu₂O upon anodic polarization may account for the good corrosion performance of the coatings.     

Isolation and characterisation of the LIX®63 degradation products 5,8-diethyl-6,7-dodecanedione monooxime (keto-oxime) and 5,8-diethyl-6,7-dodecanediol (diol) and regeneration of oxime from keto-oxime

The combination of LIX®63 and Versatic 10 possesses desirable metal separation properties, but does result in some degradation of LIX®63 oxime. In the present work, a major LIX®63 degradation product known to form under extract operating conditions was synthesised, purified and spectroscopically characterised as 5,8-diethyl-6,7-dodecanedione monooxime (keto-oxime).Borohydride-based regeneration of LIX®63 oxime from keto-oxime has been demonstrated. A procedure to overcome complications associated with oxime regeneration in the presence of Versatic 10 has been suggested.Another potential LIX®63 degradation product, 5,8-diethyl-6,7-dodecanediol (diol) was also synthesised and spectroscopically characterised. Borohydride-based regeneration of LIX®63 oxime from keto-oxime would result in the generation of diol from reduction of any associated diketone and acyloin impurities.     

3D computer simulation of the influence of microstructure on the cut edge corrosion behaviour of a zinc aluminium alloy galvanized steel

Recently, experimental work has been reported that demonstrates the effects of microstructural variations within Zn-Al Galfan type coatings on the corrosion behaviour of cut-edge material, i.e. those cases where both the underlying steel and the organic coated Galfan layer are simultaneously exposed to a corrosive environment [J. Elvins, J.A. Spittle, D.A. Worsley, Microstructural changes in zinc aluminium alloy galvanising as a function of processing parameters and their influence on corrosion, Corros. Sci. 47 (11) (2005) 2740-2759]. In this paper a finite difference numerical model of localized corrosion has been applied in an attempt to simulate this type of corrosion. Results from the model are compared to experimental observations.     

Vehicular air-bag control based on energy, momentum, and semimetricspaces

Described in this paper is a geometric control algorithm for quantifying crash severity, distinguishing crash configurations, and activating air bags during collisions. Its conceptual function and calibration depend on energy, momentum, and semimetric spaces. Its practical calibration and implementation depend on test crashes and parallel-processor routines. By contrast, current algorithms depend on acceleration and threshold routines. The algorithm here, however, proves significantly more effective-in speed, in accuracy, and in reliability