Substance use as a robust correlate of school outcome measures for ethnically diverse adolescents of Asian/Pacific Islander ancestry.

School psychologists are generally not provided with the knowledge and skills to address both educational and psychosocial issues of Asian American and Pacific Islander students. The present study is the first of its kind in examining 36 independent (i.e., demographic, social, cultural, psychological) variables in association with four school outcomes (i.e., grade point average, absences, suspensions, and school infractions) with a large sample of Caucasian, Filipino, Native Hawaiian, Japanese, mixed/non-Hawaiian, and "other" Hawai'i high school students (N = 2,833). Given the relatively unique sample in question and the sheer number of variables, an exploratory approach was utilized with the goal of determining the most robust independent variables, with the unique inclusion of Hawaiian cultural identification. A cross-validation technique was used, whereby stepwise regressions were performed for each of two cross-validation samples; only common variables were retained in a final stepwise model for each of the four school outcomes. The results indicated that, remarkably, substance use accounted for the most variance (i.e., 8.4% -16.1 %) in the four school measures. Further analyses detailed the relationship, including the finding that smoking cigarettes regularly, accounted for the most variance compared to the other five substance use items. Further research and implications of the findings are discussed, including the need for prevention and intervention programs that incorporate substance use as a component, both within and outside of school environments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sol-gel prepared Ni-alumina composite materials

The microstructure of sol-gel prepared Ni-alumina ceramic-metal composites containing up to 50% Ni has been studied with X-ray diffraction, the scanning electron microscope and the transmission electron microscope. The influence of processing temperature upon the size distribution of Ni was established. It was found that increasing the total amount of Ni increases only the number of micrometre-size Ni inclusions in the alumina, whereas the hot-pressing temperature determines the size distribution of Ni. When temperatures much higher than the melting temperature of Ni are used, a large number of Ni inclusions of the order of 10 nm can be found mainly within alumina grains; only a few are formed in grain boundaries and in triple points. When a temperature close to the melting point is used, there are fewer nanometre-size Ni inclusions and a larger number of Ni inclusions of the order of 100 nm to 1 m. In this case, the large ( 100 nm) and small ( 10 nm) Ni inclusions are found in grain boundaries and triple points.     

Instance based personalized multi-form image browsing and retrieval

It is important to adapt and personalize image browsing and retrieval systems based on users’ preferences for improved user experience and satisfaction. In this paper, we present a novel instance based personalized multi-form image representation with implicit relevance feedback and adaptive weighting approach for image browsing and retrieval systems. In the proposed system, images are grouped into forms, which represent different information on images such as location, content etc. We conducted user interviews on image browsing, sharing and retrieval systems for understanding image browsing and searching behaviors of users. Based on the insights gained from the user interview study we propose an adaptive weighting method and implicit relevance feedback for multi-form structures that aim to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the system. Statistics of the past actions are considered for modeling the target of the users. Thus, on each iteration weights of the forms are updated adaptively. Moreover, retrieval results are modified according to the users’ preferences on iterations in order to improve personalized user experience. The proposed method has been evaluated and results are illustrated in the paper. It is shown that, satisfactory improvements can be achieved with proposed approaches in the multi-form scheme.     

Annealing of Sintered Pb0.9175La0.055Zr0.975Ti0.025O3 in Air

Annealing of a sintered pellet of Pb_0.9175La_0.055Zr_0.975Ti_0.025O₃ in air without any precautions against PbO evaporation results in a core–shell microstructure with a solid PLZT core and a porous ZrO₂-rich shell.     

Expected user experience of mobile augmented reality services: a user study in the context of shopping centres

The technical enablers for mobile augmented reality (MAR) are becoming robust enough to allow the development of MAR services that are truly valuable for consumers. Such services would provide a novel interface to the ubiquitous digital information in the physical world, hence serving in great variety of contexts and everyday human activities. To ensure the acceptance and success of future MAR services, their development should be based on knowledge about potential end users’ expectations and requirements. We conducted 16 semi-structured interview sessions with 28 participants in shopping centres, which can be considered as a fruitful context for MAR services. We aimed to elicit new knowledge about (1) the characteristics of the expected user experience and (2) central user requirements related to MAR in such a context. From a pragmatic viewpoint, the participants expected MAR services to catalyse their sense of efficiency, empower them with novel context-sensitive and proactive functionalities and raise their awareness of the information related to their surroundings with an intuitive interface. Emotionally, MAR services were expected to offer stimulating and pleasant experiences, such as playfulness, inspiration, liveliness, collectivity and surprise. The user experience categories and user requirements that were identified can serve as targets for the design of user experience of future MAR services.     

Sliding friction and wear of structural ceramics

Further analysis has been performed on SiC and partially stabilized ZrO₂ specimens employed in a previous study of sliding friction and wear. Wear volumes have been measured, wear debris has been studied by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, and comparative X-ray diffraction studies have been performed on worn and unworn surfaces. There is no correlation between the wear during running-in and the steady-state coefficient of friction established by this process. ZrO₂-ZrO₂ friction couples wear much faster than SiC-SiC couples, which in turn wear faster than ZrO₂-SiC couples. In these last couples wear occurs mostly on the ZrO₂ member, but does not measurably promote the tetragonal to monoclinic phase transformation. Adding graphite to SiC reduces the wear of SiC-SiC couples somewhat, but improving their initial surface finish has the opposite effect. All wear debris exhibited a bimodal particle-size distribution, which observation can be rationalized with the wear surface topographies reported previously.     

Data sources for pharmacoeconomic and health services research

Different types of databases available for health-related research, the data contained in these databases, and potential applications for pharmacists or researchers are discussed. Case studies that demonstrate uses for health databases are presented. Databases can be organized by facility, by health care provider, by disease or organ, or by sector. The types of data they contain include financial data, utilization data, demographic data, and outcomes data. Data can be obtained from the public sector, the private sector, or the researcher's own health system. The costs and time associated with using existing databases are often less than those required to collect data, but the quality and accessibility of the data must also be considered. The researcher's choice of database will depend on the research question. Health care databases can be used for health management and decision-making, quality review and evaluation, outcomes research, episode-of-illness studies, and evaluation of treatment protocols. Researchers must comply with patient-confidentiality and other agreements when accessing data. The format of the data needs to be matched with the hardware and software to be used in the analysis, and the data need to be loaded, verified, and cleaned before use. In deciding which of the many available data sources to use, researchers must determine the appropriate balance between external data and data available within their own health systems. The decision on whether to use existing data sources or to collect data prospectively will depend on the research question, the available resources, and the scope of the study.     

Directed oxidation/nitridation of Al alloys: The orientation of the oxides/nitrides formed adjacent to Al2O3 or AlN reinforcement particles

Journal of Materials Science Letters -