Working nonstandard schedules and variable shifts in low-income families: Associations with parental psychological well-being, family functioning, and child well-being.

Longitudinal data from the New Hope Project-an experimental evaluation of a work-based antipoverty program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin-was used to explore concurrent and lagged associations of nonstandard schedules and variable shifts with parental psychological well-being, regularity of family mealtimes, and child well-being among low-income families. Working a combination of variable shifts and nonstandard hours was associated concurrently with lower teacher-reported school performance and engagement and higher levels of externalizing behavior problems. Fixed nonstandard schedules were associated with lagged decreases in parent-reported school performance, whereas working variable shifts was associated with lagged increases in parent-reported school performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Properties of Taeniolite/Acriflavine Complex Film Before and After Carbonization: Effect of Acriflavine Content

Taeniolite/acriflavine complexes (TAC) intercalated with various amounts of acriflavine were synthesized. The films derived from these complexes and raw taeniolite (TNL) as a reference were heated (carbonized) below 1273 K under a nitrogen atmosphere, followed by measurements of mechanical properties and electrical resistivity. Compared with TNL film, TAC films, especially with an amount of acriflavine equivalent to the cation exchange capacity of TNL, showed higher thermostability, higher flexibility, lower tensile strength, and larger modulus of toughness. Electrical resistivities of TAC films decreased remarkably after heating to 873 K or higher, in contrast to no change for TNL film. After heating to 1073 K, the electrical resistivities of TAC films clearly decreased with an increase of acriflavine content. This difference disappeared after heating to 1273 K. These behaviors are discussed on the basis of X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy. SEM observation, and so on.     

Film formation from cationic electropaint systems containing resins with different glass transition temperature

Some phenomena in the deposition process of electropainting have not been well elucidated till now. In this paper, to investigate an influence of glass transition temperature (T_g) on film formation, the deposited film was observed with an atomic force microscope and the electrochemistry was investigated, using two kinds of cationic acrylate resin with different T_g (methyl methacrylate system (MMAs): T_g=70°C, and methyl acrylate system (MAs): T_g=5°C). Electrodeposition was performed under constant voltage or current condition.

At constant voltage, the deposition behavior in the two resin systems differed extremely. The MMAs, the resin with high T_g, produced a high resistance film. The MAs, the resin with low T_g, was deposited forming a film at a voltage lower than 20 V. At constant current, the film formation did not result in a rise in voltage. It behaved like a conductive film. When the resin with high T_g was used, particulate deposits were observed by AFM even in the induction period. The resin with low T_g formed flat deposits. These results suggest that paint deposition is initiated once electrolysis of water starts. In addition, there are two types of film formation on the cationic electropainting: high resistance film formation for the resin with high T_g, and ion-permeable film formation for the resin with low T_g. In both cases, film growth occurs at the film/bulk solution interface.     

Strain-time effects in low-cycle fatigue of nickel-base heat-resistant alloys at high temperature

A series of strain controlled low-cycle fatigue tests in the simulated high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) helium environment were conducted at 900°C on Hastelloy X and its modified version, Hastelloy XR. In those tests the effects of strain rate and hold time on high-temperature low-cycle fatigue behavior were investigated. Decreasing the strain rate led to notable reductions in the fatigue life. In the tests with the trapezoidal strain waveform, the fatigue life was found to be reduced most effectively in tensile hold-time experiments. The tendency was interpreted through the feature of the crack morphology.     

Defects of structure in one-dimensional trains of drops of alternating composition

Merging two periodic droplet trains at a T-junction, we investigate the production of one-dimensional trains of drops of alternating composition. The structure of these trains consists of a succession of well-defined patterns and defects. A discrete model recently introduced to describe the structure of double emulsions made with two-step microfluidic dripping techniques predicts the nature of these patterns and their scheme of arrangement in a train as functions of the rates at which the two droplet trains reach the junction. Millifluidic experiments validate these predictions.     

Subboundaries in hcp4He crystals studied by SR X-ray topography

The internal structure of hcp⁴He crystals was studied by SR (synchrotron radiation) X-ray topography. Subboundaries in the crystals appeared as black or white bands in the X-ray topographs. In one of the hcp⁴He crystals, the subboundaries turned out to be flat planes perpendicular to the basal plane. They were small-angle tilt boundaries which consisted of basal edge dislocations. The dislocation spacing in one of the subboundaries was determined to be 800 nm and the total density of the boundary dislocations to be 2.6 × 10⁵ cm^–2. The subboundaries in another hcp⁴He crystal were curved and/or branching, indicating that the crystal was strained.     

Ordered structure in block polymer solutions: 6. Possible non-equilibrium effects on growth of self-assembling structures

We explore non-equilibrium effects on the growth of microdomain structures in block polymer solutions with a neutrally good solvent. The growth of microdomain structures induced by increasing segregation power with increase of polymer concentration ø_p is hindered by morphology-dependent non-equilibrium effects. For spherical microdomains with discontinuous interfaces, the effects set in when the change in number of block chains per domain cannot follow the change of ø_p. For other types of microdomains with continuous interfaces, such as cylindrical, bicontinuous and lamellar microdomains, the effects set in when the average separation of chemical junctions of block polymer chains along the interface cannot follow the change of ø_p. The effects for spheres are primarily caused by ‘suppressed mutual diffusivity’ of the block chains from one sphere to others with increasing ø_p. The effects for other morphologies are caused by ‘grain-boundary effects’ discussed in the text and/or vitrification of one type of domain. In the case when changes of the states of the system are sufficiently slow, vitrification becomes the primary cause of the non-equilibrium phenomena, regardless of the morphology of the solution.     

VR interactive dialog system with verbal and nonverbal communication

We have constructed a dialog environment between a human and a virtual agent. With commercial off-the-shelf VR technologies, special devices such as a data glove have to be used for the interaction, but it is difficult for anyone to manipulate objects on their own. If there is a helper who has direct access to objects in virtual space, we may ask them. The question, however, is how to communicate with the helper. The basic idea is to utilize speech and gesture recognition systems. We have already reported the above-mentioned result, although only the avatar can move a virtual object in the current system. The user cannot freely manipulate virtual objects. Therefore, in a new attempt, we constructed a communication channel between virtual space and the real world so that the virtual object could be manipulated. In order to develop the new system, we extended the existing system to an internet meeting system allowing users in different places to interact with each other by voice and by a pointing action with a finger. This work was presented in part and awarded as Young Author Award at the 13th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 31–February 2, 2008