Gender Differences in Pay Equity: An Examination of the Working Adolescent

This study was conducted to determine whether adult gender-based wage inequities are mirrored in the adolescent population. A developmental perspective was taken while examining this topic, so as to pinpoint stages when divergences based on gender might occur. In order to ascertain this, 157 pre-and young adolescents ranging in age from 12-15 years old participated in our survey and a subset of this group (n=89) participated in the follow-up interview. Contained in both the survey and interview were questions pertaining to remuneration, employment, negotiation, gender stereotypes and attitudes about money. Results indicated that young females seem to receive a better financial start within the home than their male peers. However, females tend to take up stereotypic work which may limit their development of new professional skills. Additionally, females do employ negotiation strategies, but they seem to only employ them with parents and not with employers. Instead they seem to expect their employer to set their wages, without thought to, or desire for, the possibility that they could impact their employer’s decision. Furthermore, development of these skills or beliefs does not appear to be linear. Instead particular ages bring forth their own unique differences, and such milestones as the transition from elementary to high school bring about various changes to girls’ and boys’ experiences with work and wages. Overall, the issue of gender-based wage inequality is far more complex than was originally hypothesized and would benefit greatly from longitudinal study in the future

MHD oxidant intermediate temperature ceramic heater study

The use of three types of directly fired ceramic heaters for preheating oxygen enriched air to an intermediate temperature of 1144K was investigated. The three types of ceramic heaters are: (1) a fixed bed, periodic flow ceramic brick regenerative heater; (2) a ceramic pebble regenerative heater. The heater design, performance and operating characteristics under conditions in which the particulate matter is not solidified are evaluated. A comparison and overall evaluation of the three types of ceramic heaters and temperature range determination at which the particulate matter in the MHD exhaust gas is estimated to be a dry powder are presented

The effect of spacer morphology on the aerosolization performance of metered-dose inhalers

Purpose: Respiratory drug delivery has been attracted great interest for the past decades, because of the high incidence of pulmonary diseases. However, despite its invaluable benefits, there are some major drawbacks in respiratory drug delivery, mainly due to the relatively high drug deposition in undesirable regions. One way to improve the efficiency of respiratory drug delivery through metered-dose inhalers (MDI) is placing a respiratory spacer between the inhaler exit and the mouth. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of type and shape of spacer on the aerosolization performance of MDIs. Methods: A commercial Beclomethasone Dipropionate (BDP) MDI alone or equipped with two different spacer devices (roller and pear type) widely distributed in the world pharmaceutical market was used. The effect of spacers was evaluated by calculating aerosolization indexes such as fine particle fraction (FPF), mass median aerodynamic diameters (MMAD) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) using the next generation impactor. Results: Although one of the spacers resulted in superior outcomes than the other one, but it was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results confirmed that the type and shape of spacer did not substantially influence the aerosolization performance of MDIs

Voriconazole and fluconazole increase the exposure to oral diazepam

Conclusion Both voriconazole and fluconazole considerably increase the exposure to diazepam. Recurrent administration of diazepam increases the risk of clinically significant interactions during voriconazole or fluconazole treatment, because the elimination of diazepam is impaired significantly

Behaviour and design of eccentrically loaded hot-rolled steel SHS and RHS stub columns at elevated temperatures

The structural fire response of hot-rolled steel square and rectangular hollow sections (SHS and RHS) under combined compression and bending is investigated in this study through finite element (FE) modelling. The developed FE models were firstly validated against available test results on hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS subjected to combined compression and bending at elevated temperatures. Upon validation, an extensive parametric study was then carried out to examine the resistance of hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS under combined loading at elevated temperatures, covering a wide range of cross-section slendernesses, cross-section aspect ratios, combinations of loading and temperatures up to 800 °C. The numerical data, together with the experimental results, were compared with the strength predictions according to the current structural fire design rules in the European Standard EN 1993-1-2 (2002) and American Specification AISC 360–16 (2016) for hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS under combined loading. The comparisons generally indicated significant disparities in the prediction of resistance of hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS under combined loading at elevated temperatures, owing principally to inaccurate predictions of the end points of the design interaction curves. The deformation-based continuous strength method (CSM) has been shown to provide accurate strength predictions for these end points i.e. the resistances of hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS stub columns and beams at elevated temperatures. In this study, proposals are presented to extend the scope of the CSM to the structural fire design of hot-rolled steel SHS/RHS under combined compression and bending. The CSM proposals are shown to offer improved accuracy and reliability over current design methods and are therefore recommended for incorporation into future revisions of international structural fire design codes

Proposals for evaluating the regularity of a scientist'sresearch output

Evaluating the career of individual scientists according to their scientific output is a common bibliometric problem. Two aspects are classically taken into account: overall productivity and overall diffusion/impact, which can be measured by a plethora of indicators that consider publications and/or citations separately or synthesise these two quantities into a single number (e.g. h-index). A secondary aspect, which is sometimes mentioned in the rules of competitive examinations for research position/promotion, is time regularity of one researcher's scientific output. Despite the fact that it is sometimes invoked, a clear definition of regularity is still lacking. We define it as the ability of generating an active and stable research output over time, in terms of both publications/ quantity and citations/diffusion. The goal of this paper is introducing three analysis tools to perform qualitative/quantitative evaluations on the regularity of one scientist's output in a simple and organic way. These tools are respectively (1) the PY/CY diagram, (2) the publication/citation Ferrers diagram and (3) a simplified procedure for comparing the research output of several scientists according to their publication and citation temporal distributions (Borda's ranking). Description of these tools is supported by several examples

The Historical Roots of the Field of Engineering Systems: Results from an In-class Assignment

The field of Engineering Systems (ES) is quite young but there are intellectual roots that go far back in time. At least that is the working hypothesis in an integrative capstone assignment given in the first doctoral subject for incoming ES PhD students at MIT. The assignment has been given for four years (2008-2011) and involves pairs of students researching the intellectual connections between a specific historical root and a specific modern ES method. This paper describes the faculty and student perspectives on the assignment, including the perceived learning outcomes, and insights gained into the roots of Engineering Systems. Some overall observations include: Interconnections among almost all selected topics (whether labeled roots or modern methods) are apparent. Each topic has an extensive time period of unfolding which gives rise to overlap and complex interactions among the topics; Herbert Simon’s work appears most pivotal in the roots of Engineering Systems. Jay Forrester, John von Neumann, Norbert Weiner and Joseph Schumpeter are also identified along with others as having a significant impact; The faculty always learn something about the field from what the students find even when topics are repeated; and, The assignment is a valuable – but not perfect – vehicle for learning about Engineering Systems and for launching budding researchers’ efforts in the field