Interaction of Household Wealth and Women’s Working Status on Child Malnutrition: Evidence from PDHS-2013

Theoretically, it is supposed that women’s working status and household wealth independently contribute towards the children’s dietary status. The working women of the inferior socio-economic class are generally engaged in the informal sector or low paid work. It may be argued that such kinds of service cannot contribute to the nutritious prestige in children. To solve this puzzle whether woman's working status in all socio-economic setups is contributing to children’s nutritional status or not? This is the main focus of the research. A sample data of 1169 households from PDHS (2012-13) are used to explore the influencing factors of child malnutrition. The study employed the binary logistic regression which observes the likelihood of malnutrition in the children. Malnutrition is measured through CIAF. The interaction terms of the woman’s working status and five quintiles of wealth index have been created. The results disclose that working women belonging to the household of the first two quintiles of the wealth index and the fourth quintile of the wealth index are not contributing to the nutritious prestige of the children. Furthermore, in the third quintiles, the working status of women contributes to the nutritional prestige of children. It may be inferred that the socioeconomic status of the household is important for the nutritional welfare of the children, not the woman's employment. However, it may be concluded that women’s employment should be of the level that can support the socio-economic status of the household.

Variables Affecting Growth and Morphology of the Intermetallic Layer Fe2al5 of Steel Aluminized in Al-Cu Alloys

The effects of the Cu concentration in Al (2~15 wt. %) on the growth and morphology of the intermetallic layer, phase constituents, hardness, oxidation and adhesion properties of an aluminized steel have been examined. In addition, the effects of variation in aluminizing temperature (675~950 °C) and dipping time (1~10 minutes) on the growth of the intermetallic layer were investigated. The techniques employed during the investigation included optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermal gravimetric analysis. The intermetallic layer formed during aluminizing in pure Al was thick and exhibited a finger-like morphology. While in the Al-Cu alloys, thickness of the intermetallic layer decreased gradually by increasing the Cu content from 2-11%. This decrease in thickness was attributed to the formation of tetragonal phases, Al2Cu and Al7Cu2Fe, on the surface of aluminized steel. The addition of the Cu content beyond 11% did not reduce thickness of the intermetallic layer further; however, the finger-like morphology of the intermetallic layer transformed into smoother one. The thickness of the intermetallic layer increased by increasing the aluminizing temperatures from 675-775 °C in the pure Al and the Al-Cu alloys, while above this range it was found constant. Likewise, it increased rapidly by increasing dipping time up to 4 minutes, after that with increasing time it increased very slowly. Conversely, the variations in aluminizing temperature and dipping time did not influence morphology of the intermetallic layer. The hardness of the coating achieved with the addition of the Cu content in Al was higher than pure Al and Al-Si alloys. However, the oxidation and adhesion properties of the steel aluminized in the Al-Cu alloys were comparable with that aluminized in pure Al and Al-Si alloys.