As college costs rise in the United States, many parents are forced to make difficult decisions about how to pay for their children’s higher education. Stress and conflict accompany financial issues and play a role in the financial picture for many families. Using Hill’s (Hill, Social casework 39:139–150, 1958) ABC-X model of family stress as a framework, this study describes results of a national survey of parents contributing to student loan payments for their child’s education and explores how this experience may play a role in familial conflict. Findings suggest marked gender differences in the relationship between contribution reason and the experience of conflict. Results also carry implications for financial professionals, suggesting a need for family-focused and gender-conscious financial education both before and during the student loan repayment process.
The implementation of image-based phenotyping systems has become an important aspect of crop and plant science research which has shown tremendous growth over the years. Accurate determination of features using images requires stable imaging and very precise processing. By installing a camera on a mechanical arm driven by motor, the maintenance of accuracy and stability becomes non-trivial. As per the state-of-the-art, the issue of external camera shake incurred due to vibration is a great concern in capturing accurate images, which may be induced by the driving motor of the manipulator. So, there is a requirement for a stable active controller for sufficient vibration attenuation of the manipulator. However, there are very few reports in agricultural practices which use control algorithms. Although, many control strategies have been utilized to control the vibration in manipulators associated to various applications, no control strategy with validated stability has been provided to control the vibration in such envisioned agricultural manipulator with simple low-cost hardware devices with the compensation of non-linearities. So, in this work, the combination of proportional-integral-differential (PID) control with type-2 fuzzy logic (T2-F-PID) is implemented for vibration control. The validation of the controller stability using Lyapunov analysis is established. A torsional actuator (TA) is applied for mitigating torsional vibration, which is a new contribution in the area of agricultural manipulators. Also, to prove the effectiveness of the controller, the vibration attenuation results with T2-F-PID is compared with conventional PD/PID controllers, and a type-1 fuzzy PID (T1-F-PID) controller.
This section is a summary of your thesis. It should give a background of the study, the objectives set, the basic methods, the important results and their associated conclusions under the different headings of: Background, Aims, Methods, Results and Conclusion. The word count for the thesis abstract is much more than that for an abstract of a research manuscript; however, every institution has its own guidelines. No citations are included in the abstract. In summary, the abstract should address the following questions: ‘What was done?’, ‘Why was it done?’, ‘What questions were set to be answered?’, ‘How was it done?’, ‘What was learnt?’, and ‘Why does it matter?’ [1]. Introduction or Background (Check with the University’s Guidelines for the Appropriate Heading Title). This sets the scene for your thesis by providing a critical literature review of the topic you are investigating, e.g. type 2 diabetes. The introduction chapter needs to motivate and lure the reader into continuing to read your thesis by describing the problem at hand and the niche present in the scientific world that your thesis will address. It is paramount that the aim and objectives of the thesis are kept in mind while you are doing the literature review in order to stay on track and not deviate from the topic. All citations should originate from the original data source and not utilise other researchers’ reviews and interpretations of the original research. Since this chapter is usually laid out during the initial phases of your PhD, it is important to keep updating the chapter with any new concepts, findings, studies and guidelines that may get published along your PhD journey. Personally, I suggest that you start this chapter early on. Most of the literature review is required as part of your PhD proposal, so once you already have laid the foundations, write it down in the form of an introduction chapter for your thesis. Having at least one chapter completed (even if you would need to update it along the way) means one less thing on your agenda when you reach the thesis-writing stage. It is recommended that the methodology you followed for your literature review is noted down; The Structure of a Thesis
The thermochemical and electrical behavior of ironmaking slag produced from titanomagnetite concentrates has been assessed in the vicinity of its tapping temperature. A combination of electrochemical measurements in a modified thermal imaging furnace and computational thermodynamic calculations was employed to elucidate its potential use as a molten oxide electrolyte for the extraction of high-purity metal. The results show that the presence of entrained iron species in the ironmaking slag decreases the faradaic efficiency of the electrolysis. Thermodynamic predictions reveal a small electrochemical window of operation between the decomposition of silica and titania, which might result in the co-reduction of titanium and silicon ions from the melt. Practical considerations for the electrochemical production of metal directly from the ironmaking process are discussed, and further experimental investigation of the electrochemical behavior of this material is justified.
Several emerging therapeutic applications of agar and its derivatives make it one of the sought-after hydrocolloids, commanding the highest price in global markets. In India farming of local agarophyte species is commercially successful supporting domestic demand coupled with natural harvesting. Several investigations have addressed issues with cultivar development and biological attributes, but technology improvements in farming are seldom attempted. The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of tube-net diameter on growth and agar obtained from the industrially important red alga Gracilaria dura . CFD modelling also was used to predict the water velocity distribution in tube-nets. Daily growth rate (DGR) in 10-cm diameter (10 cm-DN) tube-nets was 2.5 ± 0.15% day −1 and 3.39 ± 0.10% day −1 in 8 cm diameter (8 cm-DN) tube-nets. In the 8 cm-DN, the biomass outside the tube was 51.83 ± 2.69% higher than biomass inside the tube and in 10 cm-DN, biomass inside the tube was 53.53 ± 2.16% higher. Two-dimensional CFD simulations confirmed that the velocity distribution in and around the tube-net was higher in 8 cm-DN than 10 cm-DN leading to better growth in the former. The agar yield after tissue segregation showed a 14.06% increase for the biomass harvested from inside the tube than outside in the 10 cm-DN, while it was 17.75% in the 8 cm-DN. Similarly, agar gel strength recorded a 38.47% increase in the biomass harvested from outside the tube compared with the inside biomass in the 10 cm-DN, and the increase was 11.96% in the 8 cm-DN. Further studies using various tube-net diameters are necessary to select the optimal diameter for undertaking commercial farming of G. dura in the open sea.
The definition of priority for conservation becomes an emergency because habitat loss and degradation are among the main impacts on karst landscapes. In this sense, the present study aimed to evaluate the priorities for cave conservation through the combination of indexes that use species richness, species distribution, and proportion of the deforested area (PDA). The caves presented 287 non-troglobitic species and 37 species (11.7 %) with troglomorphic traits that are distributed in 50 % of the caves. The caves also present a high phylogenetic and functional diversity of terrestrial, aquatic, and amphibious cave-restricted species, including many predators, scavengers, and one phytophagous species, most of them presenting remarkable specialized traits and restrict distribution in a few caves and in specific biotopes. The PDA were positively related to the distance from the limestone outcrop, because of the restrictive landforms for agropastoral activities. At least two caves present extremely high priority for conservation (Baixão and Baixa da Fortuna caves), while four caves present high priority, and almost all others require at least a conservation action. Suggestively, in this specific case, a coherent strategy was shown to maintain the preserved vegetation around the caves, improving the restoration of small fragments and minimizing alterations. Despite the results of the indices, the singularity of the area regarding the taxonomic and functional diversity of troglobites also reinforces the urgent need for conservation actions.
We correct some mistakes in “Entropy in A Closed Manifold and Partial Regularity of Mean Curvature Flow Limit of Surfaces”.
