Do African American mothers really “love” their sons and “raise” their daughters?

This study assessed 1500 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth to test the hypothesis that African American mothers differentially socialize their girls and boys. The results showed that later-born boys had fewer chores, argued more with their mothers, lived in less cognitively stimulating homes, and were not allowed to make the same decisions as were the girls or firstborn boys at the same age. The later-born boys were also lowest in achievement and highest in externalizing behaviors. Parenting differences accounted for the achievement differences but not for the externalizing behavior differences. It was concluded that the later-born boys would achieve at the same rates as their siblings if they were socialized in the same manner as their siblings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affective News and Networked Publics: The Rhythms of News Storytelling on #Egypt

This study traces the rhythms of news storytelling on Twitter via the #egypt hashtag. Using computational discourse analysis, we examine news values and the form of news exhibited in #egypt from January 25 to February 25, 2011, pre‐ and post‐resignation of Hosni Mubarak. Results point to a hybridity of old and newer news values, with emphasis on the drama of instantaneity, the crowdsourcing of elites, solidarity, and ambience. The resulting stream of news combines news, opinion, and emotion to the point where discerning one from the other is difficult and doing so misses the point. We offer a theory of affective news to explain the distinctive character of content produced by networked publics in times of political crisis.     

Intergenerational family predictors of the Black–White achievement gap.

The authors examined intergenerational family predictors of the Black–White achievement gap among 4,406 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. An intergenerational model of the process by which family factors contribute to the achievement gap was also tested. The results showed that the ethnic gaps in socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement had significantly reduced over the past few generations. Moreover, measures of grandparent SES, mothers’ achievement, parent SES, and a comprehensive set of reliable parenting practices explained all of the ethnic differences in achievement scores. Parenting practices such as creating a school-oriented home environment, allowing adolescents to make decisions, and not burdening them with too many chores had particularly important effects on the achievement gap. The authors conclude that adjusting for these differences would eliminate the ethnic achievement gap. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wear Behavior of Composites Based on ZA-27 Alloy Reinforced by Al<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> Particles Under Dry Sliding Condition

In present study, the effect of Al₂O₃ particle reinforcement on the sliding behavior of ZA-27 alloy composites was investigated. The composites with 3, 5, and 10 wt% of Al₂O₃ particles were produced by the compocasting procedure. Tribological properties of unreinforced alloy and composite were studied, using block-on-disk tribometer under unlubricated sliding conditions at different specific loads and sliding speeds. The worn surfaces of samples were examined by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The test results revealed that those composite specimens exhibited significantly lower wear rate than the ZA-27 matrix alloy specimens in all combinations of applied loads and sliding speeds. The difference in the wear resistance of composite with respect to the matrix alloy, increased with the increase of the applied load/sliding speed and Al₂O₃ particle content. The highest degree of improvement of the ZA-27 alloy tribological behavior corresponded with change of the Al₂O₃ particles content from 3 to 5 wt%. At low sliding speed, moderate lower wear rate of the composites over that of the matrix alloy was noticed. This has been attributed to micro cracking tendency of the composites. Significantly reduced wear rate, experienced by the composite over that of the matrix alloy at the higher sliding speeds and loads, could be explained due to enhanced compatibility of matrix alloy with dispersoid phase and greater thermal stability of the composite in view of the presence of the dispersoid. Level of wear rate of tested ZA-27/Al₂O₃ samples pointed to the process of mild wear, which was primarily controlled by the formation and destruction of mechanical mixed layers (MMLs).     

Correction of pressure drop in a heavily loaded hybrid bearing when starting by using a constant flow lubrication system- Application to a rotary cement mill

We analyzed a lubricated journal plain bearing supporting heavy loaded rotary mill. During start-up operating, after the shaft is lifted by high external pressure lubricant, the speed of the shaft grows from 0 to the operating hydrodynamic speed when, suddenly after the first thirty seconds of shaft rotation, the pressure drops in one recess causing excessive damage to the pad bearing interface. The aim was to understand and provide some answers to the pressure drop in order to give an appropriate correction. Misalignment between the shaft and bearing surfaces was considered and analyzed in first part of the study. According to the obtained results the proposed correction is to use a suitable constant flow lubrication system which avoids the pressure to drop in recesses. A real application was made on a partial pad bearing supporting a heavy rotary cement mill localized at the cement plant of Chlef in Algeria.

     

A new texture and shape based technique for improving meningioma classification

Over the past decade, computer‐aided diagnosis is rapidly growing due to the availability of patient data, sophisticated image acquisition tools and advancement in image processing and machine learning algorithms. Meningiomas are the tumors of brain and spinal cord. They account for 20% of all the brain tumors. Meningioma subtype classification involves the classification of benign meningioma into four major subtypes: meningothelial, fibroblastic, transitional, and psammomatous. Under the microscope, the histology images of these four subtypes show a variety of textural and structural characteristics. High intraclass and low interclass variabilities in meningioma subtypes make it an extremely complex classification problem. A number of techniques have been proposed for meningioma subtype classification with varying performances on different subtypes. Most of these techniques employed wavelet packet transforms for textural features extraction and analysis of meningioma histology images. In this article, a hybrid classification technique based on texture and shape characteristics is proposed for the classification of meningioma subtypes. Meningothelial and fibroblastic subtypes are classified on the basis of nuclei shapes while grey‐level co‐occurrence matrix textural features are used to train a multilayer perceptron for the classification of transitional and psammomatous subtypes. On the whole, average classification accuracy of 92.50% is achieved through the proposed hybrid classifier; which to the best of our knowledge is the highest. Microsc. Res. Tech. 77:862–873, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Geomembrane puncture and strains from stones in an underlying clay layer

Results from physical experiments are presented to assess the possible puncture of a 1.5-mm-thick HDPE geomembrane and, if not punctured, the maximum tensile strains in the deformed geomembrane from intentionally placed stone particles in an underlying compacted clay liner when subjected to applied vertical stresses. The influences of applied pressure, clay water content, stone size, stone burial depth and protection layer on the geomembrane tensile strains are reported. Except in one test conducted to a pressure of 2000 kPa, the geomembrane was not punctured in the short-term tests conducted; however, it was subjected to local indentations and tensile strains from the underlying gravel particles that may exceed proposed allowable long-term strain limits. Tensile strains for the specific 35 mm stones tested when initially flush with the clay surface were negligible, even up to pressures of 1000 kPa, provided the initial water content of clay was 12%. Increases in water content or stone size were found to increase the tensile strain. Placing the clay at the lower limit of acceptable water content was found to be beneficial in terms of reducing strains from buried stones; however, this was also found to make the geomembrane more susceptible to stone particles sitting on top of the clay surface and hence careful site inspection is required to remove all visible stones that sit on top of the clay surface.     

Optimization approaches and climates investigations in NZEB—A review

The conception of net zero energy buildings (NZEB) has been introduced to limit energy consumption and pollution emissions in buildings. Classification of NZEB is based on renewable energy (RE) supply options, energy measurement process, RE-sources location, and balances whether are energetic or exergetic. In general, it is traditionally agreed that there are three main steps to reach the NZEB performance, starting through the use of passive strategies, energy efficient technologies, and then RE generation systems. Then, these three steps could be accompanied with the smart integration of advanced efficient energy technologies. A state of the art shows that the main ZEB studies are related to: energy savings, reduce electric bills, energy independence, pollution reduction, and occupants comfort, in addition, others are more interested in the aesthetic aspect by combining modern technologies with innovations to achieve high energy and sustainability performance. Building optimization is a promising technique to evaluate NZEB design choices; it has been adopted to choose the perfect solution to reach the zero energy performance through the optimization of an objective function related to energy (thermal loads, RE generation, energy savings) and/or environment (CO₂ emissions) and/or economy (life-cycle cost (LCC), net-present value (NPV), investment cost). This paper starts by presenting the global energetic and pollution challenges the world faces. Moreover, it shows, to the best to the author’s knowledge, the existing NZEB definitions and the corresponding case studies investigated in 8 different climatic zones (humid continental, humid subtropical, Mediterranean, moderate continental, moderate continental, marine west coast, tropical, semi-arid and hot), the paper also focus on the importance to treat each climate separately. Even in the same country, two or more climates may co-exist. NZEBs drawbacks are also presented. Furthermore, different optimization problems are reviewed in the last section. Building energy optimization methods are employed to obtain the ideal solution for specific objective functions which are either related to energy, and/or environment and/or economy. Optimization variables are distributed between passive and/or RE generation systems. Finally, a table summarizing the most commonly used electric and thermal RE applications which yield to the zero energy balance in each climate, as well as three flowcharts are presented to summarize the whole three-stage procedure, to reach NZEB, starting from building designing, passing through the optimization procedure, and lastly categorizing the zero energy balance.     

A contribution to improvement of the nuclear data concerning alpha decay of U

Compared to other alpha-particle emitting nuclides, for those with long half-lives (T_1/2>10⁶ years), there is generally some inconsistency and inaccuracy in the associated nuclear data. However, these radionuclides play a major role in modern society and, for a number of reasons, are the subject of widespread interest. The study of their alpha decay, which is more difficult than in the case of the other nuclides, enables knowledge of their nuclear data to be increased. In the present paper, we accordingly consider one of the most well known ones: ²³⁵U. Using a quasi mono-isotopic deposit of ²³⁵U obtained by electromagnetic separation, we have studied the alpha-particle decay of ²³⁵U using a high-energy resolution spectrometer developed in our laboratory. The stability of the spectrometer made it possible to perform long measurements which is crucial in the case of ²³⁵U. The Colégram program, with a new fit criterion to better take into account peaks of low statistical significance, was used to extract the data (alpha-particle emission probabilities and energies). Monte-Carlo simulations carried out in the context of this work were also used to corroborate the data obtained. Finally, thirteen alpha-particle emissions from ²³⁵U were measured, from which only ten were previously observed and measured. This work has substantially reduced the uncertainty concerning alpha-particle emission probability and energy values and has resolved some of the ambiguities concerning the ²³⁵U disintegration scheme to ²³¹Th.