Sensitive Mother-to-Adolescent Disclosures After Divorce: Is the Experience of Sons Different From That of Daughters?

This study addressed two main questions: (a) Are adolescent sons and daughters exposed to sensitive maternal disclosures after divorce with similar frequency and in similar detail? and (b) Does gender act as a moderator in the association between maternal disclosures and adolescent adjustment difficulties? Forced-choice and open-ended data were collected from 194 adolescents within 2 years after their parents' divorce. Quantitative analyses revealed that although the majority of adolescents experience some level of maternal disclosure, neither frequency nor detail of maternal disclosure differed as a function of adolescent gender. Frequent and detailed maternal disclosures were associated with adolescent adjustment difficulties, primarily psychological distress. Gender did not moderate that significant association. Qualitative analysis shed light on the link between maternal disclosures and adolescent distress, suggested the importance of how disclosures are made, and revealed several gender differences in reactions to maternal disclosures. Implications of the findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recovery of gold cyanide using inherently conducting polymers

Removal of gold from basic solutions containing [Au(CN)₂]^? has been demonstrated using the inherently conducting polymer polypyrrole. Polymers containing sulfonated aromatic dopants have been found to display a significant ability to remove gold from such solutions. Experiments performed in solutions containing both gold and copper cyanide complexes indicate that the recovery process is not highly selective. However, the polypyrroles used display significantly faster rates of gold recovery than activated carbon. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry     

Understanding the differences between how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks

Research was undertaken to understand how to provide the most appropriate support for novice designers in engineering design. However, how designers apply their experience and knowledge is not understood and further research in this area is required. This paper describes an observational study to understand how novice and experienced designers approach design tasks. Electronic Publication     

Detecting and characterising returns in a pulsed ladar system

A new multi-spectral laser radar (ladar) system based on the time-correlated single photon counting, time-of-flight technique has been designed to detect and characterise distributed targets at ranges of several kilometres. The system uses six separated laser channels in the visible and near infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The authors present a method to detect the numbers, positions, heights and shape parameters of returns from this system, used for range profiling and target classification. The algorithm has two principal stages: non-parametric bump hunting based on an analysis of the smoothed derivatives of the photon count histogram in scale space, and maximum likelihood estimation using Poisson statistics. The approach is demonstrated on simulated and real data from a multi-spectral ladar system, showing that the return parameters can be estimated to a high degree of accuracy.     

The influence of the fabrication process on the buckling of thin-walled steel box sections

Steel box sections are usually fabricated from flat plates which are welded at the corners. The welding process can introduce residual stresses and geometric imperfections into the sections which can influence their strength. For some thin-walled sections, large periodic geometric imperfections have been observed in manufactured sections. Subsequent investigations have indicated that the imperfections are in fact buckling deformations i.e. the box section has buckled due to welding residual stresses prior to any application of external load. The welding procedure and the behaviour of the box sections under load has been modelled using a finite element analysis that accounts for both geometric and material non-linearities. Tests have been carried out on box sections with a range of width to thickness ratios for the plate elements. Modelling has been shown to give good correlation with the test results. The conditions for buckling to take place as a result of the welding process have been established. A design method has been proposed.     

Simple concepts for ion source improvement

We report on improvements in the overall intensity of a sputter ion source that evolved originally from an NEC MCSNICS. Beam output increases benefit both AMS measurements and nuclear physics experiments using low natural abundance beams. In particular, minor changes in source geometry suggested by a combination of electrostatic calculations and simple design principles have yielded increases in extracted negative ion intensity of nearly a factor of 4.     

Can Fusion and Fission Breeding Help Civilization Survive?

As apparent from the title, this author feels that civilization faces a real threat, one which will become obvious and serious within the lifetimes of many readers of this article. This threat is not global warming, but lack of affordable energy. We take for granted turning on a light, or adjusting our thermostats in winter or summer, or filling our cars gas tank; and lose sight of the fact that there are huge and complicated industrial systems which make this possible. But as we run out of petroleum and natural gas, and worry about the environmental and climatic effects of burning coal on the required scale, how can this continue? This paper makes the case that breeding nuclear fuel, by both fusion and fission, is the only way our civilization as we know it, can continue beyond the next half century or so.     

数字放大器—3G无线基站的助推器

为了构筑第三代无线网络,人们需要对现有基础设施进行彻底改造,包括网络的发射基站。配置在无线基站中的新型数字控制功率放大器能够改善频谱利用率和功率效率,从而提高系统容量。PMC-Sierra公司的数字控制功率放大器采用了数字校正信号处理器(DCSP)以及自适应控制处理器和补偿估值器(ACPCE),该放大器可改善无线基础设施的可靠性,同时降低系统成本、规模及复杂性。