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The principles of monitoring the laser processing of metals are considered; the design and the main parameters of the spectrophotometer designed on the base of an optical-fiber AvaSpec 2048 spectrometer with the spectral range 380–1050 nm are presented. The technique of its calibration is discussed and the obtained spectral sensitivity is reported. The measured spectra of optical and near IR radiation that forms in the contact region of CO2 laser radiation (wavelength 10.2 μm, power 1 kW) with the steel surface are presented. The problems of selecting the spectral portion in which the uncertainty of measuring temperature during contactless technological monitoring of high-temperature laser processes using thermographic devices will be minimal are discussed.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that continues to receive increased attention at federal and state levels. The benefits of UDL include providing an approach to curriculum and instructional design that creates flexible instructional goals, methods, materials, and assignments. Despite the growing popularity of UDL in national policies, measuring the implementation of the UDL framework remains elusive. In March 2017, the research committee of the Universal Design for Learning–Implementation and Research Network (UDL-IRN) convened a preconference of researchers and practitioners to discuss and make recommendations for a national research agenda. Four workgroups address issues related to UDL. These included (a) operationalizing and applying UDL, (b) instruments for the measurement of UDL, (c) teacher education/professional development (PD) in UDL, and (d) UDL tools, technologies, and resources. The results of the workgroups’ effort to identify issues and strategic actions in UDL implementation and research are reported.

In the paper presents an overview of existing electronic Kazakh-language thesauri and their automatic methods of construction and application. The author analyzed the main characteristics of open access thesauri for scientific research, evaluated the dynamics of their development and effectiveness in solving problems of natural language processing. Statistical and linguistic methods of thesaurus construction were studied, which allow to automate the development and reduce the labor costs of expert linguists. It is considered algorithms for selecting key terms from texts and semantic thesaurus links of all types, as well as the quality of application of the resulting thesauri. For illustrate the features of various methods of building thesaurus links, a combined method was developed that generates a specialized thesaurus completely automatically based on the corpus of domain texts and several existing linguistic resources.

Background and Methods Suicide amongst the 91,000 Polish nationals living in Scotland has been identified as a concern by the Polish Consulate. The adult suicide rate in Poland is 20.8 / 100,000 EASR population (Eurostat Suicide and Undetermined combined 2012-15). This is significantly higher than the 2012-16 Scottish level of 14.1 / 100,000 National Records of Scotland (NRS). We set out to establish the picture for Polish migrants in Scotland and for 2012-16: ascertained the number of such deaths from National Records of Scotland (NRS) describing the epidemiological features; andreviewed Crown Office files of each person - extracting key information from police and pathology reports. Results There were 68 suicide deaths in the 60 months. We estimated the European age standardised suicide rate (EASR) for all Polish residents in Scotland as 21.6 / 100,000 (95% CI 13.4 - 31.4) a suicide rate consistent with Poland not Scotland. The male:female ratio of 5.8:1 also mirrors Poland (vs. Scotland’s 3:1 ratio). Polish men have a significantly higher rate than Scottish men - 31.5 vs 19.4 / 100,000. The suicide rates of Polish and Scottish women are very similar (5.4 vs 7.3 / 100,000 respectively). Crown Office Records A key finding is how similar the circumstances surrounding suicide deaths in both Polish and Scottish people are. In particular unemployment /irregular work, shift and manual work, relationship problems and alcohol use are all common. For Polish people in Scotland the challenges and stresses of the ’migrant experience’ are superimposed onto other life events. Difficulties working in an English-speaking environment (and being unable to discuss emotional health), not knowing about the NHS Scottish public services and the lack of family and community networks to offer social support are all common. Conclusions Actions are at four levels: National- the suicide action planEmployersNHS - staff awareness and monitoring trendsPolish community groups Key messages Polish migrants to Scotland have a much higher rate of suicide than Scottish people - consistent with that in Poland. Addressing suicide requires examining factors in migrant and ethnic minority groups.

This article presents a preliminary examination of the potential of Technology User Groups as a professional development venue for early childhood education professionals in developing operational and functional competence in using hardware and software components of a Technology toolkit. Technology user groups are composed of varying numbers of participants having an interest in technology, and are led by one or more skilled facilitators who meet with participants across time to help them acquire and demonstrate new technology skill sets. A series of these groups were conducted with seven early education professionals serving young preschool children who were at risk or who had disabilities. The impact of these technology user groups was examined using self-reports subsequent to individual participation. Specific data were collected regarding the types of technologies that had been used, and the types of classroom instructional products that had been created and implemented in classrooms using the technologies. A discussion of the value of technology user groups is presented.

Everyday technologies (e.g., iPods, iPads, and Smart Phones) offer applications (apps) that can serve as supports to students with intellectual and related developmental disabilities. The extent to which apps that are currently on the market are aligned with the support needs of children was evaluated using the subscale framework of the Children's Supports Intensity Scale ( Child-SIS). Recommendations for future research and app development are provided, and implications for how apps influence assistive technology (AT) consideration and the concept of technological abandonment are discussed.

BackgroundThe foetal origins hypothesis suggests an association between low birth weight and later depression, yet evidence supporting this association has been inconsistent.MethodWe systematically reviewed evidence for an association between low birth weight and adult depression or psychological distress in the general population by meta-analysis. We searched EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO and ISI Web of Science for studies reporting observational data with low birth weight as the exposure and self- or clinician-rated depression or psychological distress measures as an outcome. Selective studies of exposures such as famine or outcomes such as severe illness only were excluded. Altogether,1454 studies were screened for relevance, 26 were included in the qualitative synthesis, 18 were included in the meta-analysis. A random effects meta-analysis method was used to obtain a pooled estimate of effect size.ResultsThe odds of depression or psychological distress was greater for those of low birth weight (2500 g) or greater [odds ratio (OR) 1.15, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.00–1.32]. However, this association became non-significant after trim-and-fill correction for publication bias (OR 1.08, 95% CI 0.92–1.27). Using meta-regression, no differences in effect size were observed by gender, outcome measure of depression or psychological distress, or whether the effect size was adjusted for possible confounders.ConclusionsWe found evidence to support a weak association between low birth weight and later depression or psychological distress, which may be due to publication bias. It remains possible that the association may vary according to severity of symptoms or other factors.

Online communities of practice offer the potential for the development of a shared understanding regarding knowledge and skills related to a particular field or practice. Online communities of practice also offer researchers a means to analyze discussions to determine themes related to practices within a given field. This chapter presents two studies that have examined discussions that have occurred among members of a large assistive technology (AT) Listserv. The purpose of the studies was to identify and examine themes grounded in the conversations and experiences of those individuals actively engaged in AT service delivery. Findings are presented and implications of using online communities of practice within research as well as a means for knowledge and skill development are discussed.

Assistive technology consideration and implementation is often limited by the technology experience and knowledge of the education professionals involved in the process. The creation of a toolkit containing highly useful technologies may assist education professionals in this process. This article discusses a systematic method for creating a technology toolkit for use with students having mental retardation. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Although models have been proposed to guide the important work of school teams as they implement the assistive technology consideration process, little understanding exists as to how these models relate to recommended practices for educational assessment. This article proposes a comparison between educational assessment practices and four selected models of the assistive technology consideration process that are documented in the literature. The strengths and limitations of the assistive technology consideration models are discussed and recommendations for future research and practices are presented.

Finite element analyses were conducted to analyze the dynamic response of an unbalanced sandwich beam, a balanced sandwich beam, and a balanced sandwich plate subject to a low energy impact. In particular, strain versus time history, failure location and mode, and the influence of an existing delamination crack on the failure were investigated. It was found that, in the presence of a small delamination crack, the failure load of a sandwich composite structure increased compared to that of the non-delaminated structure. For a small crack, failure under impact loading was core shearing, that occurred away from the crack tip. However, as the delamination crack length increased, the core shearing failure occurred at the crack tip under a reduced impact load. Thus, the failure location shifted moving away from the crack tip to the crack tip as the delamination crack size increased from a small size to a large size. The failure load for a large crack structure was significantly smaller than that of the non-delaminated structure. Core shearing failure was followed by delmaination at the core/faceplate interfaces. When the initial delamination crack size became longer than half of the beam length, the crack further propagated through the interface. Furthermore, a delamination crack did not result in a substantial increase in the maximum deflection compared to that of the non-delaminated specimen. Thus, detection of delamination cracks was difficult from the deflection measurement under a low energy impact. Finally, the effect of crack surface friction on the dynamic behaviour and failure of the sandwich structures was small.

Human spatial orientation in spaceflight is initially disturbed by the absence of usable graviceptor information from the otolithic organs. Experiments measuring astronaut visually induced motion (vection) strength on various flight days during the first 10 days of the Spacelab Life Sciences-2 mission demonstrated two new phenomena in addition to confirming the initial increased weighting of visual and localized tactile cues. The reliance on tactile and visual noninertial cues apparently declined after a week in space, as the crew became able to utilize their internal reference frame. Subjects also showed that even nondirectional tactile cues served as a direction anchor and inhibited visually induced roll sensation relative to a new loosely tethered test condition. Individual perceptual styles were again revealed among the four astronauts tested. The readaptation to 1 G similarly shows a period of reinterpretation of inertial and visual cues to spatial orientation. The results are discussed in terms of an internal-model representation of body orientation, with time-varying weights applied to extrinsic and intrinsic signals.

Measurement of contact angles for water, formamide and diiodomethane with lead compounds of sulfate, thiosulfate, oxide and hydroxycarbonate were made on both dried and prewetted galena surfaces. Using the values obtained, Lifshitz-van der Waals and Lewis acid-base (electron acceptor and electron donor) components of the surface free energy of the solids were determined, and compared to the values of the surface free energy of nonoxidized and oxidized galena. It was found that the free energy of the galena surface originated from apolar and polar interactions, and that polar interactions were strongly dependent on the surface hydration. Moreover, it may be concluded that the wettability of galena depends on the lead compounds formed on its surface as a result of the oxidation process, and on the degree of their hydration.

Measurements of the contact angle for water, glycerol, ethylene glycol, diiodomethane, bromoform and 1,1,2,2-tetrabromoethane on chalcocite, copper oxide, copper hydroxide, copper sulfate and sulphur were made. Using the ‘geometric mean’ and van Oss et al. approaches, the dispersion and nondispersion — or Lifshitz-van der Waals, electron-acceptor and electron-donor components of the surface-free energy — of the studied solids were determined and compared with those calculated from zeta potential measurements. On the basis of the results obtained it was found that the surface-free energy of the solids studied in this work originated from apolar and polar intermolecular interactions. As concentration of the hydroxyl group on chalcocite surface is increased, so the polar interactions are increased.

Measurements of the contact angle for water, diiodomethane, bromoform and 1,1,2,2-tetrabromoethane on non-oxidized and oxidized surfaces of galena were made. Using the results obtained, the “geometric mean” approach, and the long-range and short-range interactions approaches, the dispersion and non-dispersion, and Lifshitz-van der Waals and acid-base components of the surface free energy of galena were determined and compared with those calculated from adsorption isotherms ofn-octane andn-propanol. On the basis of the measurements and calculations it was found that the surface free energy of galena depends on its degree of oxidation and arise mainly from London's and acid-base intermolecular interactions. It was also found that values of the dispersion and non-dispersion components of galena surface free energy determined from the contact angle assuming that a film is present around the water and diiodomethane drops, are close to those obtained from adsorption isotherms ofn-octane andn-propanol.

We devise a variational approach to the metal-insulator transition (MIT) that combines the Mott and Hubbard aspects of localization. Starting from the Gutzwiller approach, we optimize the ground-state energy not only with respect to the double occupancy {eta}, but also with respect to the single-particle wave functions, which enter the energy via expressions for the Coulomb interaction {ital U} and for the bare bandwidth {ital W}. In effect, we obtain a theory of the MIT without resorting to a parametrization in terms of {ital U}/{ital W}. The effective mass close to the MIT is strongly enhanced even when the transition is discontinuous.

The contact angle and the detachment force have been measured in the system coal/n-alkane film—air bubble—water, using n-alkanes in the homologous series from n-hexane to n-hexadecane. Using measured values of the contact angle with the Young equation, the work of adhesion of water to the surface of coal/n-alkane film was calculated. The results show that wetting and the work of adhesion decrease with increasing thickness of n-alkane films precoating the coal surface and with increasing length of the hydrocarbon chain, and that there is an optimum value for the thickness of n-alkane film on the coal surface at which the stability of attachment of the coal particle to an air bubble is greatest. A correlation between the detachment force of an air bubble from coal/n-alkane film surface and the work of adhesion of water to this surface was also determined.

Magnetic properties of the neutron star matter are determined by the behaviour of protons which form a dilute component of the neutron star core [1]. Protons are likely to localize at high densities [2, 3]. This is a result of nuclear interactions which at high densities favour a single-isospin system [4, 5]. Localized protons would form a crystal structure at low temperatures [6]. Such a proton crystal has a single proton localized inside every elementary cell. As we showed in Ref. [I], neutron star matter with localized protons is unstable with respect to spin fluctuations. It is easy to see that a single proton, which has a well-defined spin, will polarize surrounding neutron matter, as there exists direct proton-neutron spin interaction. This induced polarization of the neutron Fermi sea can in turn polarize neighbouring localized protons. This means that the RKKΥ (Ruderman—Kittel-KasuyaYoshida) [7] mechanism can operate and a long-range spin order can propagate in the proton crystal. Nuclear forces are strongly spin-dependent. For our purpose here it is useful to approximate the spin potential by a contact potential with a suitably chosen coupling constant [1]. For studying a system of protons localized in potential wells due to density variation of the neutron background the relevant spin potential is

Consideration can be defined as the process of giving careful thought to something. When an IEP team considers the instructional programming and related goals and objectives for a student identified eligible for special education services, the process gives careful attention to a multitude of factors from different perspectives that result in individualized instruction for that student. Similarly, when assistive technology is considered for students with certain learning characteristics, careful attention must be given to ensure that the recommended assistive technology is required for the student to be successful and reflects an appropriate match between him/her and the tools (Zabala, 1995, 1996). For example, given that prescription eyeglasses can be considered assistive technology, and that a certain degree of visual acuity is generally needed in order for an individual to visually access print, one can see the importance of ensuring that the prescription is indeed required for an individual to perform and is appropriately matched to the visual needs of the individual. If eyeglasses are arbitrarily assigned to an individual, they may serve as an obstacle for the individual to see properly, thus, hampering his/her overall performance.

Although raster images are inherently ambiguous, humans exhibit uncanny abilities to come up with their likely interpretations. A methodology to simulate such behaviour on a computer is presented here. A numerical method for rejection of unlikely interpretations is given. A likely interpretation selected is found to depend on a particular raster pattern under study, but also on the architecture of the machine performing the study, as well as on the machine language used to elaborate possible interpretations. A number of suggestions for further research emerge, pertaining to the image description languages, machine vision computer architectures, graph interpretation systems, as well as comments on the feasibility of automatic, intelligent retouching of partially damaged images.

The work presents the interference of modes which have the same polarization states with respect to two successive orders (TE0, TE1) in the planar waveguide obtained with the use of the ion exchange technique K+- Na+ in the base plate made of glass BK-7. The changes of the refractive index of the waveguide cover result in the changes of phase differences between the guided modes, which in turn brings about a different distribution of light intensity at the end of the waveguide.© (1999) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Measurements of the surface tension of aqueous solutions of decylammonium chloride (DACl) and cesium perfluorooctanoate (CsPFO) and the interfacial tension of DACl (CsPFO) solution-decane and DACl (CsPFO) solution-benzene systems were made at 293 and 303 K. On the basis of these measurements, the adsorption isotherms and the standard free energies of adsorption were determined. Also, the standard free energy of adsorption was determined from the surface free energy of the tails of DACl and CsPFO and the interfacial free energy of the tail-water system. It was found that the standard free energy of adsorption at a given temperature only slightly depends on the type of phase in contact with the solutions of the surfactants and can be determined on the basis of the surface and interfacial free energy of systems including the tails of the surfactants. It was also found that standard free energy of adsorption depends on temperature, and is considerably smaller for CsPFO than for DACl. Copyright 1997Academic Press

Measurements of the surface tension of decylamine and perfluoroheptane and interfacial tension of water–perfluoroheptane were carried out. Measurements of the contact angle were also made for water, glycerol, formamide, diiodomethane, bromoform, and benzene on DACl and CsPFO layers formed on Teflon and on DACl and CsPFO pellets, as well as of zeta potential for surfactants adsorbed on latex. From the results obtained and the literature data the surface free energy of DACl and CsPFO for both tails and heads parts of their molecules, and their free energy of interaction through water were determined. It was shown that the free energy of interaction between –CH 2 – groups through water, determined from interfacial tension, is in agreement with that obtained from the relationship between logCMC and the number of carbon atoms in the chain of molecules of surfactants having the same head. It was also shown that there is agreement between the total free energy of interaction between molecules of surfactants through water and their critical micelle concentration (CMC).