What causes the word gap? Financial concerns may systematically suppress child-directed speech

Parents with fewer educational and economic resources (low socioeconomic-status, SES) tend to speak less to their children, with consequences for children’s later life outcomes. Despite this well-established and highly popularized link, surprisingly little research addresses why the SES “word gap” exists. Moreover, existing research focuses on individual-level explanations with little attention to structural constraints with which parents must contend. In two pre-registered studies, we test whether experiencing financial scarcity itself can suppress caregivers’ speech to their children. Study 1 suggests that caregivers who are prompted to reflect on scarcity—particularly those who reflect on financial scarcity—speak to their 3-year-olds less than a control group in a subsequent play session. Study 2 finds that caregivers speak less to their children at the end of the month—when they are more likely to be experiencing financial hardship—than the rest of the month. Thus, above and beyond the individual characteristics of parents, structural constraints may affect how much parents speak to their children

La substitution induced linear temperature dependence of electrical resistivity and Kondo behavior in the alloys, Ce_{2-x}La_{x}CoSi_{3}

The results of electrical resistivity, heat capacity and magnetic susceptibility behavior of new class of alloys, Ce_{2-x}La_{x}CoSi_{3}, are reported. The x= 0.0 alloy is mixed valent and La substitution for Ce (x= 0.25) induces linear temperature dependence of resistivity at low temperatures, an observation of relevance to the topic of non-Fermi liquid behavior. The modifications of Kondo effect for all the alloys are also presented.Comment: Accepted for publication in Solid State Communication

Reframing the measurement of women’s work in the sub-Saharan African context

This research note considers how we measure women’s work in the sub-Saharan African (SSA) context. Drawing on qualitative work conducted in Burundi, the note examines how existing measures of women’s work do not accurately capture the intensity and type of work women in SSA undertake. Transcripts from qualitative interviews suggest that women think of work to meet their roles and responsibilities within the household. The women in the interviews do not frame work as a career or a primary activity in a time-use allocation. As a result, researchers need to nest questions regarding women’s work within surveys that ask about roles and responsibilities within the household, and about how women meet these responsibilities with a financial component.Published versionAccepted manuscrip

Magnetic and electrical resistance behaviour of the oxides, Ca<SUB>3−x</SUB>Y<SUB>x</SUB>LiRuO<SUB>6</SUB> (x=0.0, 0.5 and 1.0)

We have investigated the magnetic and electrical resistance behaviour of Ca3&#8722;xYxLiRuO6. The parent compound exhibits magnetic ordering of the ruthenium sublattice at a rather high temperature, 113 K. Though the paramagnetic Curie temperature (&#952;p) is negative and indicates antiferromagnetic ordering, the large magnitude (&#8722;250 K) of &#952;p reveals a complex nature of the magnetism in this compound. Ru ions appear to be in the pentavalent state. We note that the N&#233;el temperature undergoes only a marginal reduction by Y substitution. All these compositions are found to be insulators and thus the electron doping does not result in metallicity. Thus the overall magnetic and transport behaviour are found to be essentially insensitive to Y substitution for Ca, a finding which may favour the idea of quasi-one-dimensional magnetism in these compounds

Creativity in workshop: overlap and underlap card technique for concentration units of second semester general chemistry

Creativity in the classroom is the goal for peer leaders of the Peer Led Team Learning Program (PLTL) in the Chemistry Department at the University of Texas at El Paso. The goal is to enhance the learning experience for students taking general chemistry in their workshops or classrooms. These ideas allow students to engage in classroom discussions with their peer leader. The ideas can be themed on concepts such as molecular geometries, kinetics, or acids and bases. In second semester general chemistry, a call to utilizing creativity in the classroom has demonstrated a way for peer leaders to efficiently teach students how to convert the following four main concentration units via kinesthetic interaction: molarity, molality, mole fraction, and percent by mass. What this means is that, by arranging cards as fractions in which the concentration units are represented as ratios, they will be maneuvered by grabbing each card and placing them either over or under another card to get the desired unit. Thus, to reach a desired unit in the numerator and/or the denominator the concept of overlap and underlap is the key to employing these stacks of cards to see how the units relate to one another. This allows students to think about what is needed in the numerator and the denominator. Students gain the opportunity to physically manipulate conversion factors and improve or review their understanding of dimensional analysis

A toolkit for mastering organic nomenclature in general chemistry

In the second semester of general chemistry, students receive an introduction to organic chemistry. A strong foundation in learning starts with the ability to correctly name organic compounds. Our proposed strategy involves the identification of the parent chain, the recognition of resident functional groups, and the ability to discern/indicate the correct isomer if any, etc. We propose a modular toolbox that facilitates compartmentalization of the nomenclature process of organic compounds and helps the student adequately identify all structural elements present in an organic compound. Accurately naming an organic compound is essential to understanding of its properties; to success in Organic Chemistry 1 and 2; and, for a career as a Chemist in academia, industry or in government agencies. The advantages of our procedure is discussed using examples to illustrate the process

Results from EDGES High-Band: II. Constraints on Parameters of Early Galaxies

We use the sky-average spectrum measured by EDGES High-Band ($90-190$ MHz) to constrain parameters of early galaxies independent of the absorption feature at $78$~MHz reported by Bowman et al. (2018). These parameters represent traditional models of cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization produced with the 21cmFAST simulation code (Mesinger & Furlanetto 2007, Mesinger et al. 2011). The parameters considered are: (1) the UV ionizing efficiency ($\zeta$), (2) minimum halo virial temperature hosting efficient star-forming galaxies ($T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$), (3) integrated soft-band X-ray luminosity ($L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}$), and (4) minimum X-ray energy escaping the first galaxies ($E_{0}$), corresponding to a typical H${\rm \scriptstyle I}$ column density for attenuation through the interstellar medium. The High-Band spectrum disfavors high values of $T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$ and $\zeta$, which correspond to signals with late absorption troughs and sharp reionization transitions. It also disfavors intermediate values of $L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}$, which produce relatively deep and narrow troughs within the band. Specifically, we rule out $39.4<\log_{10}\left(L_{\rm X\,<\,2\,keV}/{\rm SFR}\right)<39.8$ ($95\%$ C.L.). We then combine the EDGES High-Band data with constraints on the electron scattering optical depth from Planck and the hydrogen neutral fraction from high-$z$ quasars. This produces a lower degeneracy between $\zeta$ and $T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}$ than that reported in Greig & Mesinger (2017a) using the Planck and quasar constraints alone. Our main result in this combined analysis is the estimate $4.5$~$\leq \log_{10}\left(T^{\rm min}_{\rm vir}/\rm K\right)\leq$~$5.7$ ($95\%$ C.L.). We leave for future work the evaluation of $21$~cm models using simultaneously data from EDGES Low- and High-Band.Comment: Accepted in Ap

Prognosis of hospitalized new-onset systolic heart failure in Indo-Asians--a lethal problem

Background: Systolic heart failure (SHF), particularly when requiring hospital admission carries a poor prognosis. There is a paucity of data in Indo-Asians on outcomes of SHF, among whom the burden of cardiovascular disease is consistently rising. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and predictors of mortality and morbidity amongst patients admitted with new-onset SHF at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Methods and Results: Hospital charts of 196 patients with a diagnosis of new or recent onset (!3 months) SHF (ejection fraction [EF] !40%) were reviewed. Patients who died during the admission, those with life-limiting concomitant disease, and those without follow-up were excluded. Survival was calculated according to the Kaplan-Meier method. Hazards ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using Cox’s regression model. Mean age (SD) was 61 (12.8) years. Majority (77%) had a prior ischemic heart disease. Mean EF (SD) was 25% (8.7). Median follow-up period was 379 days. Fifty-four (27.5%) patients died (at least 12 [22.2%] sudden deaths) and 102 (52%) experienced combined event of death or repeat hospitalization for SHF. Factors independently associated with death included (HR [95% CI]), serum sodium (0.94 [0.90e0.97]), admission pulse (1.02 [1.01e1.04]), systolic blood pressure (0.98 [0.97e0.99]), and severe mitral regurgitation (1.90 [1.03e3.48]). Conclusions: Admission for new or recent onset SHF predicts a grave 1-year prognosis in Indo-Asians. Measures to prevent ischemic heart disease and its sequelae are essential because developing nations simply cannot afford to treat and manage heart failure