Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Citation for Published Item: Use Policy Context Matters: Fostering, Orphanhood and Schooling in Sub-saharan Africa Running Head: Fostering, Orphanhood and Schooling in Africa Context Matters: Fostering, Orphanhood and Schooling in Sub-saharan Africa Introduction

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Summary: A growing body of research suggests that orphanhood and fostering might be (independently) associated with educational disadvantage in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, literature on the impacts of orphanhood and fostering school enrolment, attendance and progress produces equivocal, and often conflicting, results. This paper reports on quantitative and qualitative data from 16 field-sites in Ghana and Malawi, highlighting the importance of historical and social context in shaping schooling outcomes for fostered and orphaned children. In Malawi, which has been particularly badly affected by AIDS, orphans were less likely to be enrolled in and attending school than other children. By contrast, in Ghana, with its long tradition of 'kinship fostering', orphans were not significantly educationally disadvantaged; instead, non-orphaned, purposively-fostered children had lower school enrolment and attendance than their peers. Understanding the context of orphanhood and fostering in relation to schooling is crucial in achieving 'Education for All'.
Mapping Copper and Lead Concentrations at Abandoned Mine Areas Using Element Analysis Data from ICP–AES and Portable XRF Instruments: A Comparative Study

Understanding spatial variation of potentially toxic trace elements (PTEs) in soil is necessary to identify the proper measures for preventing soil contamination at both operating and abandoned mining areas. Many studies have been conducted worldwide to explore the spatial variation of PTEs and to create soil contamination maps using geostatistical methods. However, they generally depend only on inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP–AES) analysis data, therefore such studies are limited by insufficient input data owing to the disadvantages of ICP–AES analysis such as its costly operation and lengthy period required for analysis. To overcome this limitation, this study used both ICP–AES and portable X-ray fluorescence (PXRF) analysis data, with relatively low accuracy, for mapping copper and lead concentrations at a section of the Busan abandoned mine in Korea and compared the prediction performances of four different approaches: the application of ordinary kriging to ICP–AES analysis data, PXRF analysis data, both ICP–AES and transformed PXRF analysis data by considering the correlation between the ICP–AES and PXRF analysis data, and co-kriging to both the ICP–AES (primary variable) and PXRF analysis data (secondary variable). Their results were compared using an independent validation data set. The results obtained in this case study showed that the application of ordinary kriging to both ICP–AES and transformed PXRF analysis data is the most accurate approach when considers the spatial distribution of copper and lead contaminants in the soil and the estimation errors at 11 sampling points for validation. Therefore, when generating soil contamination maps for an abandoned mine, it is beneficial to use the proposed approach that incorporates the advantageous aspects of both ICP–AES and PXRF analysis data.
Stereo-Based Stochastic Mapping for Robust Speech Recognition

We present a stochastic mapping technique for robust speech recognition that uses stereo data. The idea is based on constructing a Gaussian mixture model for the joint distribution of the clean and noisy features and using this distribution to predict the clean speech during testing. The proposed mapping is called stereo-based stochastic mapping (SSM). Two different estimators are considered. One is iterative and is based on the maximum a posteriori (MAP) criterion while the other uses the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion. The resulting estimators are effectively a mixture of linear transforms weighted by component posteriors, and the parameters of the linear transformations are derived from the joint distribution. Compared to the uncompensated result, the proposed method results in 45% relative improvement in word error rate (WER) for digit recognition in the car. In the same setting, SSM outperforms SPLICE and gives similar results to MMSE compensation of Huang A 66% relative improvement in word error rate (WER) is observed when applied in conjunction with multistyle training (MST) for large vocabulary English speech recognition in a real environment. Also, the combination of the proposed mapping with CMLLR leads to about 38% relative improvement in performance compared to CMLLR alone for real field data.
Purification of Mouse Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cells Promotes Ex Vivo Neuronal Differentiation

The main objective of this study is to test the potential of specific populations of mouse bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCs) to differentiate into the neuronal cell lineage. Bone marrow of 33 mice was aspirated under general anesthesia. The collected marrows were analyzed for cell counts, compositions, and percentages of different stem cell types. We used the Midi MACS magnetic separator to purify specific populations of stem cells from the aspirated bone marrow. Cells were analyzed using flow cytometry. We assessed the presence of stem cell antigen-1 (Sca-1+) and prominin-1+ cells in the cellular fraction that was depleted of lineage-committed cells (lineage-). Both purified and nonpurified cells were cultured ex vivo using specific growth media with factors that drive the cells to differentiate into the neuroglial cell types. Cells were then analyzed by flow cytometry for expression of specific neuronal markers. Our results showed that there was an increase of Sca-1+ and prominin-1+ cells in the lineage- fraction over the unpurified BM. After lineage depletion, the percentages of Sca-1+ and prominin-1+ cells increased from 4.9% and 2.6%, up to 76.1% and 59%, respectively. Unpurified mouse BM differentiated into fibroblasts, whereas Sca-1+ cells were able to generate astrocytes. Interestingly, purified prominin-1+ cells were able to generate neuronal cells. Purification of adult bone marrow-derived stem cells enhances their potentiality for differentiating into specific neuronal cell lineages.
A Novel Tunable Multi-Frequency Hybrid Vibration Energy Harvester Using Piezoelectric and Electromagnetic Conversion Mechanisms

This paper presents a novel tunable multi-frequency hybrid energy harvester (HEH). It consists of a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) and an electromagnetic energy harvester (EMEH), which are coupled with magnetic interaction. An electromechanical coupling model was developed and numerically simulated. The effects of magnetic force, mass ratio, stiffness ratio, and mechanical damping ratios on the output power were investigated. A prototype was fabricated and characterized by experiments. The measured first peak power increases by 16.7% and 833.3% compared with that of the multi-frequency EMEH and the multi-frequency PEH, respectively. It is 2.36 times more than the combined output power of the linear PEH and linear EMEH at 22.6 Hz. The half-power bandwidth for the first peak power is also broadened. Numerical results agree well with the experimental data. It is indicated that magnetic interaction can tune the resonant frequencies. Both magnetic coupling configuration and hybrid conversion mechanism contribute to enhancing the output power and widening the operation bandwidth. The magnitude and direction of magnetic force have significant effects on the performance of the HEH. This proposed HEH is an effective approach to improve the generating performance of the micro-scale energy harvesting devices in low-frequency range.
Disjoint out-of-order execution processor

High-performance superscalar architectures used to exploit instruction level parallelism in single-thread applications have become too complex and power hungry for the multicore processors era. We propose a new architecture that uses multiple small latency-tolerant out-of-order cores to improve single-thread performance. Improving single-thread performance with multiple small out-of-order cores allows designers to place more of these cores on the same die. Consequently, emerging highly parallel applications can take full advantage of the multicore parallel hardware without sacrificing performance of inherently serial and hard to parallelize applications. Our architecture combines speculative multithreading (SpMT) with checkpoint recovery and continual flow pipeline architectures. It splits single-thread program execution into disjoint control and data threads that execute concurrently on multiple cooperating small and latency-tolerant out-of-order cores. Hence we call this style of execution Disjoint Out-of-Order Execution (DOE). DOE uses latency tolerance to overcome performance issues of SpMT caused by interthread data dependences. To evaluate this architecture, we have developed a microarchitecture performance model of DOE based on PTLSim, a simulation infrastructure of the x86 instruction set architecture. We evaluate the potential performance of DOE processor architecture using a simple heuristic to fork control independent threads in hardware at the target addresses of future procedure return instructions. Using applications from SpecInt 2000, we study DOE under ideal as well as realistic architectural constraints. We discuss the performance impact of key DOE architecture and application variables such as number of cores, interthread data dependences, intercore data communication delay, buffers capacity, and branch mispredictions. Without any DOE specific compiler optimizations, our results show that DOE outperforms conventional SpMT architectures by 15%, on average. We also show that DOE with four small cores can perform on average equally well to a large superscalar core, consuming about the same power. Most importantly, DOE improves throughput performance by a significant amount over a large superscalar core, up to 2.5 times, when running multitasking applications.
Interest Rate Deregulation and Private Investment: Revisiting the Mckinnon-Shaw Hypothesis in Ghana

: The study re-examines the McKinnon-Shaw financial liberalization hypothesis, which posits simply that high real deposit interest rates increase financial savings, which in turn lead to increase in the quantity and quality of domestic investment. More specifically, the study investigates the impact of interest rate deregulation on investment in Ghana and the transmission mechanism through which this could happen. Utilizing cointegration and error correction model techniques with data for the period 1970-2005, the study’s findings are as follows. While the study finds a statistically significant and positive relationship between real deposit interest rate and financial savings as well as between bank credit and financial savings, the net effect of a real deposit rate on investment is found to be negative. In other words, holding all other variables constant, a higher real deposit rate which leads to a higher increase in financial savings and then bank credit, is offset by a higher cost of lending, thus making the net effect on investment negative. In this regard, the findings do not seem to provide support for the McKinnon-Shaw financial liberalization hypothesis. Other variables found to be important in explaining investment in Ghana are the financial deepening, macroeconomic volatility that is proxied by inflation differential and the lagged change in GDP, affirming the accelerator model principle. The findings therefore have important policy implications for the on-going financial sector reforms.
Auditory Presence, Individualized Head-Related Transfer Functions, and Illusory Ego-Motion in Virtual Environments

It is likely that experiences of presence and self-motion elicited by binaurally simulated and reproduced rotating sound fields can be degraded by the artifacts caused by the use of generic Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs). In this paper, an HRTF measurement system which allows for fast data collection is discussed. Furthermore, effects of generic vs. individualized HRTFs were investigated in an experiment. Results show a significant increase in presence ratings of individualized binaural stimuli compared to responses to stimuli processed with generic HRTFs. Additionally, differences in intensity and convincingness of illusory self-rotation ratings were found for sub-groups of subjects, formed on the basis of subjects localization performance with the given HRTFs catalogues.
Healthcare seeking behaviour among female garment workers in Koggala Free Trade Zone, Sri Lanka

Background: In a 2011 study, the prevalence of musculoskeletal disease among a female garment worker group in Koggala Free Trade Zone (Sri Lanka) was estimated to be 15.5%. Nearly all affected women in this group felt their problems disrupted their leisure activities and household work, while only a few reported missing work as direct consequences of their discomfort. The reason why they did not seek treatment or take leave, however, was not clear. Objective: To explore the healthcare seeking behaviour and barriers that prevent female workers at Koggala Free Trade Zone from seeking care Methods: This is an exploratory mixed methods quantitative-qualitative study utilizing pre-interview questionnaires and focus group discussions. Four focus group discussions were held, each consisting of 6 female garment workers (n=24). Discussions were transcribed and processed through three levels of analysis and qualitative coding. Major themes on healthcare seeking and barriers to healthcare were identified using the resulting codebook. Results: The quantitative data showed that more than 90% of focus group participants (n=22) reported musculoskeletal pain in the month prior to the study and less than 30% sought care. Major barriers to healthcare seeking were identified: workers’ perception on Western medical treatment and pain, the difficulty in accessing healthcare outside the factory, pressure from management to reach production goals, and financial and personal factors from taking time off work. Conclusions: Multiple factors play a role in healthcare seeking among Sri Lankan female garment workers. Targeted occupational health interventions should focus on alleviating these pain points for garment workers and on educating workers and factory management on the benefits of proactive healthcare seeking behaviour for Sri Lankan female garment workers.
Estimating the effective wavelength of the thermal band for accurate brightness temperature retrieval: Methods and comparison

Brightness temperature (BT) obtained accurately from the at-sensor radiance observed by thermal remotely sensed imagery is primary but indispensable, especially for sensors provided with just one thermal channel. It is readily to estimate BT by using several empirical constants which were obtained and validated through pre-launch calibration, such as those for Landsat TM/ETM+. Whereas, for some other sensors (e.g. HJ-1B and CBERS-02), of which the calibration results are always unacquirable to the general users. Nevertheless, previous studies indicated that the effective wavelength was a proper solution for this issue. But, the problem is how to estimate the effective wavelength for each specific thermal band, including that of Landsat TM/ETM+, HJ-1B, CBERS-02 and ASTER B13/B14. In this paper, several possible methods were discussed and compared. According to the comparison analysis, an ‘Iterative’ procedure gave a suitable effective wavelength through which the BT was able to be retrieved precisely. Then, the detailed discussions verified the possibility that using a suitable effective wavelength in BT retrieval procedure, particularly in the case of the pre-launch calibration results are not in hand. Finally, based on our findings, the empirical constants were calculated in order to obtain BT accurately and practicably from the thermal bands of HJ-1B and CBERS-02.
Bidirectional Relationships Between Stress, Depressive Symptoms, and Cognitive Vulnerabilities in Adolescents

Introduction: Depression is a highly prevalent problem in adolescence, with great clinical and social relevance. Recent models of psychopathology in childhood and adolescence underscore that the relationships between stress, cognitive vulnerabilities, and depressive symptoms are bidirectional. In addition, according to cognitive therapy models, cognitive vulnerabilities are organized hierarchically, with deep schemas guiding more superficial cognitive processes such as rumination. The present study examines the longitudinal predictive relationships between two levels of cognitions (early maladaptive schemas and rumination), stressors, and depression. Method: A sample of 584 Spanish adolescents (262 girls; mean age = 15.99, SD = 1.10) completed measures of depression, stressors, rumination, and three early maladaptive schema domains (disconnection and rejection, impaired autonomy and other-directedness) over 4 intervals of 4 months. Path analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study. Results: Disconnection and rejection domain systematically predicted an increase in depression, new stressors, and rumination over time. In addition, depressive symptoms predicted an increase of disconnection/rejection scores at all time points. Finally, from Time 2 on, stressors predicted an increase in all schema domains. Discussion: The outcomes suggest the importance of the disconnection and rejection schema domain. These results are important to understand the mechanisms underlying stress and depression in adolescents.
Quantitative characterization of vapour adsorption on solid surfaces and estimation of emissivity of solids using infrared thermography

The process of adsorption of water-vapour molecules on uneven (irregular) surfaces of some solid materials at room temperature is registered by infrared camera. The pronounced "thermal flame" ("thermal fire") phenomenon developing on the samples’ surfaces is exhibited and quantitatively represented. This thermal effect ranged within an order of magnitude. 3-µm-wavelength emissivities of different fabrics are obtained experimentally with the presented non-standard reflection-based method that needs for a narrow-spectral-range infrared camera. An analytical relationship between the amount of adsorbate and the measurable excess of adsorbent temperature is derived. Exclusively high sensitivity of the FPA-based infrared method as applied to the examination of initial stages of adsorption of gaseous molecules on solid surfaces is discovered. It is shown that the method makes it possible to control an incipient molecular film of 1/300-monolayer effective thickness precipitated on the exposed surface of a bulky material and of 1/600-monolayer thickness in the case of the adsorption on a thin-film adsorbent (with a double-faced surface).
Evolution of topics in education research: a systematic review using bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT Education research tends to exhibit interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary characteristics. Based on the subject areas in Google Scholar, within the 51 disciplines under social sciences, nine subjects are directly related to education (early childhood education, education, educational administration, educational psychology & counselling, educational technology, higher education, science & engineering education, special education, teaching & teacher education). The interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary characteristics of education research make it difficult for researchers to identify the overall development of specific topics within the field. In this paper, we first collect core papers from the field of education. Then, we construct keyword co-occurrence networks using these papers. Finally, based on the density distribution of keyword co-occurrence networks, we analyse changes in network density at each stage of educational research. Last, we identify the development trends of core topics in the education field. Our main contribution is the quantitative methodological design for examining the hot topics and evolution of education research, which is highly multidisciplinary and covers a large volume of publications.
Correlation functions of the shifted Schur measure

The shifted Schur measure introduced by Tracy and Widom is a measure on the set of all strict partitions, which is defined by Schur $Q$-functions. The main aim of this paper is to calculate the correlation function of this measure, which is given by a pfaffian. As an application, we prove that a limit distribution of $\lambda_j$'s with respect to a shifted version of the Plancherel measure for symmetric groups is identical with the corresponding distribution of the original Plancherel measure. Further we give expressions of the mean value and the variance of the size of a partition with respect to the measure defined by Hall-Littlewood functions.
Three essays in labour market mobility

This dissertation contains three essays in labour market mobility. These essays employ a dynamic multinomial logit model with discrete factor approximation for the specification of unobserved individual heterogeneity and Wooldridge's approach for controlling the endogeneity problem of initial conditions. The dynamic structural of the model is assumed to follow a first order Markov process. The data is taken from longitudinal levels of Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics ( SLID ) and is restricted to males aged 25 to 55 between 1993 and 2004. I examine and discuss the importance of structural and spurious state dependence in three different aspects of labour market mobility. Relevant policy implications are discussed. The first essay compares immigrants and natives in self-employment transitions among four mutually exclusive and exhaustive states of paid-employment, self-employment, unemployment, and being out of the labour force. The second essay explores the factors explaining immigrant-native differences in stability, downward, and upward wage mobility rates. The final essay provides a comprehensive research on earnings dynamics of immigrants and natives within and between Canada and Denmark. This essay also employs Danish administrative registered dataset for the period 1994-2003. Empirical results show that state dependence exists in all states of labour market mobility with different degrees for immigrants and natives. Not all observed persistence is structural, some portion is due to the unobservable factors