A high-temperature oxidation-resistant Fe-Mn-Al-Si alloy

To develop satisfactory alloys without Cr or Ni for high-temperature application up to 1100C, three alloys based on Fe-10%Al-Si with differing fourth (or fifth) element additions were oxidized in air at 1100°Cfor 24 hr. A low carbon, Fe-30Mn-10Al-Si alloy exhibited excellent high-temperature oxidation resistance. The total weight gain for 24 hr oxidation in air at 1100°C was only 1.03 mg/cm ². After air oxidation for 6 days at 1100°C, no nodule formation or breakthrough oxidation occurred. Post-oxidation SEM and EDAX examination showed that a thin, compact, protective alumina scale formed on the alloy.Visiting Scientist (People's Republic of China).     

Building Minority Language Corpora by Learning to Generate Web Search Queries

The Web is a source of valuable information, but the process of collecting, organizing, and effectively utilizing the resources it contains is difficult. We describe CorpusBuilder, an approach for automatically generating Web search queries for collecting documents matching a minority concept. The concept used for this paper is that of text documents belonging to a minority natural language on the Web. Individual documents are automatically labeled as relevant or nonrelevant using a language filter, and the feedback is used to learn what query lengths and inclusion/exclusion term-selection methods are helpful for finding previously unseen documents in the target language. Our system learns to select good query terms using a variety of term scoring methods. Using odds ratio scores calculated over the documents acquired was one of the most consistently accurate query-generation methods. To reduce the number of estimated parameters, we parameterize the query length using a Gamma distribution and present empirical results with learning methods that vary the time horizon used when learning from the results of past queries. We find that our system performs well whether we initialize it with a whole document or with a handful of words elicited from a user. Experiments applying the same approach to multiple languages are also presented showing that our approach generalizes well across several languages regardless of the initial conditions.     

The diversification of psychology: A multicultural revolution.

The National Multicultural Conference and Summit was held in January 1999 in California. Hosted by Divisions 17 (Counseling Psychology), 35 (Society for the Psychology of Women), and 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues), the event drew support from many American Psychological Association (APA) divisions and other organizations and sponsors. Approximately 550 psychologists and graduate students attended the conference, which was intended to (1) examine state-of-the-art issues in ethnic minority psychology, (2) identify barriers to becoming a multicultural profession, and (3) forge alliances for political action and advocacy. The summit participants unanimously endorsed resolutions aimed at implementing cultural competence in all psychological endeavors. Multicultural themes arising from the summit included the diversification of the US; the facilitation of difficult dialogues on race, gender, and sexual orientation; spirituality as a basic dimension of the human condition; the invisibility of monoculturalism and Whiteness; and the teaching of multiculturalism and diversity. APA was strongly encouraged to take the lead in seeing that multicultural competence becomes a defining feature of psychological practice, education and training, and research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Executive function and theory of mind: Predictive relations from ages 2 to 4.

Despite robust associations between children's theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF) skills, longitudinal studies examining this association remain scarce. In a socially diverse sample of 122 children (seen at ages 2, 3, and 4), this study examined (a) developmental stability of associations between ToM, EF, verbal ability, and social disadvantage; (b) continuity and change in ToM and EF; and (c) predictive relations between ToM and EF. Verbal ability and social disadvantage independently predicted changes in EF (but not ToM). Task scores improved with age and showed stable individual differences. The authors examined predictive relations between ToM and EF using partial correlations (controlling for age and verbal ability) and hierarchical regressions (that also controlled for social disadvantage and initial ToM and EF). The findings provide only partial support for the view that ToM is a prerequisite for EF but stronger support for the proposal that EF facilitates children's performance on ToM tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reviews

A VISUAL APPROACH TO PARK DESIGN by A. J. Rutledge, John Wiley, 1985. 180pp.

FIFTY YEARS OF LANDSCAPE DESIGN: 1934-84 Edited by Sheila Harvey and Stephen Rettig, Landscape Press, 1985.

DES PAYSAGES, POUR QUI? POURQUOI? COMMENT? by Georges Neuray, Les Presses Agronomiques de Gembloux, Belgium, 1982, 589 pp. 1640 Belgian Francs.

THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY by Professor David Lowenthal, Cambridge University Press, 1985, 490 pp, £27.50 (H/B), £9.95 (P/B).

INTERPRETING THE LANDSCAPE: LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY IN LOCAL STUDIES by Michael Aston. B. T. Batsford, London 1985. Price £9.95 (P/B).

AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES: A SECOND LOOK, by R. Westmacott and T. Worthington, Countryside Commission (CCP 168, 1984) £7.00

AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES: AN APPROACH TO THE IMPROVEMENT, by P. Hamilton and J. Woolcock, Countryside Commission (CCP 169, 1984) £8.00

AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES: DEMONSTRATION FARMS, by R. Cobham et al, Countryside Commission (CCP 170, 1984) £13.00

REVIEWS OF UNITED KINGDOM STATISTICAL SOURCES, VOLUME XVII, Weather by B. W. Atkinson and Water by E. C. Penning-Rowsell and D. J. Porter. Published for the Royal Statistical Society and Economic and Social Research Council by Pergamon Press, 1985, 266 pp.

THE COUNTRYSIDE HANDBOOK by Alan Rogers, John Blunden and Nigel Curry, Open University/Croom Helm, 1985, 98 pp, £5.95.

THE CHANGING COUNTRYSIDE — edited by John Blunden and Nigel Curry. Open University/Croom Helm, 1985, 270 pp, £11.95.     

Digital-phase-locked-koop phase-error variance

The linearised baseband model of the nonuniform sampling digital phase-locked loop (d.p.l.l.) is used to derive expressions for noise equivalent bandwidth. A quasilinear approximation is then used to extend the theory into the nonlinear region.     

Two methods of asynchronous data compression

Two new asynchronous data-compression techniques are described. These involve picking out peaks of the signal in one case, and peaks together with certain other important points of slope variation, in the second case. Signal reconstruction is effected by joining these points by straight lines.     

Zinc Nutrition and Inflammation in the Aging Retina

Zinc is an essential nutrient for human health. It plays key roles in maintaining protein structure and stability, serves as catalytic factor for many enzymes, and regulates diverse fundamental cellular processes. Zinc is important in affecting signal transduction and, in particular, in the development and integrity of the immune system, where it affects both innate and adaptive immune responses. The eye, especially the retina‐choroid complex, has an unusually high concentration of zinc compared to other tissues. The highest amount of zinc is concentrated in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) (RPE‐choroid, 292 ± 98.5 µg g^?1 dry tissue), followed by the retina (123 $\pm$62.2 µg g^?1 dry tissue). The interplay between zinc and inflammation has been explored in other parts of the body but, so far, has not been extensively researched in the eye. Several lines of evidence suggest that ocular zinc concentration decreases with age, especially in the context of age‐related disease. Thus, a hypothesis that retinal function could be modulated by zinc nutrition is proposed, and subsequently trialled clinically. In this review, the distribution and the potential role of zinc in the retina‐choroid complex is outlined, especially in relation to inflammation and immunity, and the clinical studies to date are summarized.     

Fences of childhood: Challenging the meaning of playground boundaries in design

Scholars have criticized the capacity of playgrounds to support children's participation in public life. Fences of childhood, such as walls, fences, and enclosures, dominate children's “public” spatial experiences in the global north. Challenging well-established critiques of the fenced playground as a space that segregates and controls childhood experiences, this study offers a novel and nuanced perspective, emphasizing the qualities of the playground fence that support play and playful connections, on, through, and around it. Employing an ethnographic methodology, this study includes 167h of observations in three typical urban public playgrounds in Greece and 65 semi-structured interviews with 124 participants. Drawing on recursive thematic qualitative analysis, the fence emerges as a blurred boundary, that is, an element that transgresses assumptions and questions spatial classifications and hierarchies. Rarely the subject of design discourse, these findings are particularly significant in design disciplines globally and offer new understandings on the possibilities afforded by the playground fence. Emergent themes, namely, indeterminacy, climbabilty, playability, and porosity, are proposed as principles to guide fenced playground design as part of a fundamental reconceptualization. This reconceptualization positions the fenced playground as a public space infrastructure, supporting intergenerational interaction and play as well as children's presence and play in the public realm.     

A Method for Studying Dynamic Sorption Behavior of Small Wood Samples

A method for determining mass changes (～ 0.0001 g) in small (～ 4-mm cubes) wood samples using the resonance of small mechanical springs mounted on piezoelectric sensors is presented. The size of the sample allows individual heartwood or sapwood, earlywood, latewood, and compression wood samples to be measured in an oscillating relative humidity environment and compared in terms of time constant and moisture gain. Since the apparatus is cost effective, many replicates can be achieved in one experiment. The use of small wood samples such that all tracheids are exposed removes the effect of structure on bound water transport. This, in combination with the ability to measure the response to small perturbations in relative humidity, presents the possibility to determine gaseous diffusion coefficients as a function of moisture content for individual wood types.

Preliminary, representative results of a study comparing the effect of drying temperature on sorption behavior of wood dried at 20, 90, and 150°C are presented.