Job demands and pesticide exposure among immigrant Latino farmworkers.

The goal of this study was to understand the potential threat of job stressors to farmworker health. To accomplish this goal we studied pesticide exposure, an issue with immediate and long-term health consequences, and predictions from the Demands-Control model of occupational stress. Longitudinal, self-report data and urine samples were collected at monthly intervals from a cohort of Latino farmworkers (N = 287) during the 2007 agricultural season. The primary hypothesis was that greater exposure to psychological demands, physical exertion, and hazardous work conditions are associated with greater odds of detecting dialkylphosphate (DAP) urinary pesticide metabolites, biomarkers indicating exposure to pesticides. Contrary to this hypothesis, results indicated that none of the elements of the Demands-Control model were independently associated with detection of DAP urinary pesticide metabolites. However, analyses produced several interaction effects, including evidence that high levels of control may buffer the effects of physical job demands on detection of DAP urinary pesticide metabolites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetic analysis of magnesium aluminate spinel formation: Effect of MgO:Al2O3 ratio and titania dopant

The mechanistic pathway of MgO-Al₂O₃ reaction in solid state to form MgAl₂O₄ spinel was investigated to correlate the kinetic parameters with ratio of reactants (MgO:Al₂O₃) and with the presence of a doping agent, TiO₂. The time-temperature-expansion data of oxide compacts was analyzed using several model free analyses and model based (linear and non-linear) kinetic algorithms. These indicated that spinel formation process can be best described by single step with n-dimensional Avrami equation for every MgO:Al₂O₃ ratio, irrespective of titania dopant. The activation energy (E_a) of the process was proportional to % spinel formed in each system and validated with quantitative XRD analysis. The higher value of Avrami coefficient (n) in 90 wt% Al₂O₃ compositions has been explained with geometric considerations of powder packing. Incorporations of 1% TiO₂ in the MgO: Al₂O₃ oxide compact did not markedly affect the reaction model, frequency factor and Activation energy.     

Ways of listening to depressed women in qualitative research: Interview techniques and analyses.

Qualitative research on depression requires methods of interviewing and analysis that allow the researcher to hear how social factors are structured in thought and how such factors affect depressive conflict. This article discusses 6 ways of listening used in the author's qualitative research with depressed women: open listening, focused awareness, and attending to moral language, to inner dialogues, to meta-statements, and to the logic of the narrative. Examples illustrate how listening to processes of thought leads to content analysis that preserves the individuality of subjects, and to theory formation. Silencing the Self theory is summarized as it relates to these ways of listening. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on fracture criteria for interface fracture

Several criteria for interface fracture are examined and compared to test results obtained from glass/epoxy specimens. These include two energy release rate criteria, a critical hoop stress criterion and a critical shear stress criterion. In addition, approximate plastic zone size and shape within the epoxy are determined for these tests.     

Answer Justification in Diagnostic Expert Systems?Part II: Supporting Plausible Justifications

This paper describes how a new method for answer justification in abductive diagnostic expert systems, presented in a preceding companion paper (Part I), can be supported in a domain-independent fashion. Both the issues of explaining why a disorder is included in a differential diagnosis and why it is ranked the way it is relative to its "competitors" are addressed. This approach to answer justification is then compared to previous work on answer justification in medical expert systems.     

Dissociations between procedural and episodic memory: Effects of time and aging.

The issue of multiple memory systems is explored. Young and older adults (mean ages?=?20 and 71, respectively) named pictures and were tested immediately, 1, 7, or 21 days later. Episodic memory (recognition) for pictures was significantly lower in older relative to young adults and declined systematically across all retention intervals in both age groups. In contrast, procedural memory (repetition priming in picture naming) revealed no reliable age differences. In both age groups, priming declined within the first 24 hr, but unlike recognition, there was no further decrement from 1 to 21 days. There were also within-subject dissociations: The magnitude of priming was equivalent for remembered and forgotten items, and the relation between recognition and priming across intervals was nonmonotonic, revealing a reversed association. The findings were interpreted within a multiple-memory-systems framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Hierarchical representation of problem-solving knowledge in a frame-based process planning system

In most frame-based reasoning systems, the information being manipulated is represetned using frames, but the problem-solving knowledge that manipulates the frames is represented as production rules. One problem with this approach is that rules are not always a natrual way to represent knowledge; another is that systems containing lots of rules may suffer from problems with “exponetial blowup” in the amount of computation required. This paper describes a way to address these problems by organizing the problem-solving knowledge not as rules, but in a particular kind of frame hierarchy. the approach described in this paper has been implemented in a problem-solving system called SIPP (Semi-Intelligent Process Planner), which produces plans of action for the manufacture of metal parts. the paper gives an overview of SIPP, compares its knowledge representation and problem solving methods to approaches used in other knowledge-based systems, and describes goals for further research.     

Pineapple leaf fibers (PALF) as the sustainable carbon anode material for lithium-ion batteries

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - Pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) is considered as a promising low cost carbon precursor to produce a high graphitic carbon material, regarding to...     

Disentangling Phase and Morphological Evolution During the Formation of the Lithium Superionic Conductor Li10GeP2S12

The structural and morphological changes of the Lithium superionic conductor Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂, prepared via a widely used ball milling-heating method over a comprehensive heat treatment range (50 – 700 °C), are investigated. Based on the phase composition, the formation process can be distinctly separated into four zones: Educt, Intermediary, Formation, and Decomposition zone. It is found that instead of Li₄GeS₄–Li₃PS₄ binary crystallization process, diversified intermediate phases, including GeS₂ in different space groups, multiphasic lithium phosphosulfides (Li_xP_yS_z), and cubic Li₇Ge₃PS₁₂ phase, are involved additionally during the formation and decomposition of Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂. Furthermore, the phase composition at temperatures around the transition temperatures of different formation zones shows a significant deviation. At 600 °C, Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂ is fully crystalline, while the sample decomposed to complex phases at 650 °C with 30 wt.% impurities, including 20 wt.% amorphous phases. These findings over such a wide temperature range are first reported and may help provide previously lacking insights into the formation and crystallinity control of Li₁₀GeP₂S₁₂.