Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical incidents that lead to homelessness: recommendations for counselors

This dissertation describes a qualitative investigation of two research questions: “What do homeless individuals perceive to be the critical incidents that led to their homelessness? ” and “What do people who are homeless recommend for how counselors can help the homeless and individuals at risk of becoming homeless? ” Twenty-five participants were recruited from an Iowa City homeless shelter and were interviewed using an interview protocol. Participants were asked to provide detailed accounts of critical incidents that led to their homelessness and recommendations for counselors who would be working with people who are homeless or at a risk of becoming homeless. The critical incident technique, a qualitative research methodology, was used to develop the research design and analyze data. From the 25 interviews, 238 useful responses were extracted creating 34 unique categories. Eleven overarching themes were derived, representing groupings of categories. There were seven themes and 18 corresponding categories describing participant responses about the critical incidents that led to their homelessness. The first theme was Employment, Finances, and Resources with the categories Loss of Employment, Resource Problems, Job Search Difficulties, and Financial Problems. The second theme was Interpersonal Incidents with the categories Isolated from Interpersonal Support, Domestic Dispute, Domestic Abuse, and Burdening Interpersonal Support. The third theme was Substance Abuse with the categories Substance Abuse of Participant and Substance Abuse of Other. The fourth theme was Significant Difficult Events with the categories Traumatic Event, Conned/Robbed, and Natural Disaster. The fifth theme was Illness with the categories Psychological Illness and Physical Illness. The sixth theme was Legal Problems with the
The impacts of built environment on ridesourcing demand: A neighbourhood level analysis in Austin, Texas

Recently, the explosive growth of ridesourcing, or on-demand ridesharing, has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and planners. Despite its transformative impacts on mobility, limited studies have examined how built environment affects its use. In this study, we investigate the impacts of built environment on ridesourcing demand. We employ structural equation modelling to account for the complex relationships among study variables, and investigate the impacts at census block group level by using RideAustin data in Austin, Texas. Findings reveal strong impacts of built environment on ridesourcing demand and significant temporal heterogeneity. The models show that greater population/employment/service job densities, road density, pavement completeness, land use mix and job accessibility by transit produce more ridesourcing demand. Access to the commuter rail (MetroRail) also leads to greater demand. Furthermore, time-of-day (TOD) models demonstrate that these effects vary significantly according to the time of day. Our research has implications for policy making and for travel demand modelling of ridesourcing.
Six critical questions about smart specialization

ABSTRACT During the last five years, we can observe a soaring academic interest in the concept of smart specialization. A burgeoning literature emerged both conceptually and empirically. In this paper, we pause for a while and take stock of six critiques so far identified in this emerging literature. The aim is to provide a critical lens for future research on smart specialization strategies and processes. We argue that: (1) Smart specialization is a confusing concept, as what it really means is diversification; (2) It is largely predicated on a conventional science and technology (S&T) model of innovation and regional economic development, whereas socio-ecological innovation and social innovation, have only been implicitly mentioned, at best; (3) It is the continuation of cluster policies, rather than a brand-new policy instrument; (4) It contains a delusional transformative hope, although the entrepreneurial discovery process could very likely lead to lock-ins; (5) Structurally weak regions might be less likely to benefit from smart specialization; and 6) more rigorous measurements of smart specialization are still needed. By engaging systematically with these six issues, we not only aim to improve the effects of smart specialization as a policy programme, but also to contribute to its conceptual advancement.
A multifidelity method for locating aeroelastic flutter boundaries

This paper introduces a multifidelity method that can produce accurate estimates of the flutter boundary at a reduced cost by combining information from lowand high-fidelity aeroelastic models. Estimating the flutter boundary in the presence of non-linear aerodynamic phenomena is challenging because high-fidelity aeroelastic models are expensive to evaluate, and flutter analysis requires manymodel evaluations. On the other hand, relatively inexpensive approximate aeroelastic models (low-fidelity models) exist and are routinely applied to reduce the cost of estimating flutter, albeit with lower accuracy. The multifidelity method introduced here uses an active learning algorithm to leverage information from low-fidelity models. A multifidelity statistical surrogate is used to fit damping coefficient estimates computed with different aeroelasticmodels. This surrogate is used to estimate the uncertainty in the prediction of the flutter boundary, which drives the selection of new evaluations. The effectiveness of the multifidelity method is demonstrated by estimating the aeroelastic flutter boundary of a typical section model at a cost 85% lower when compared to the bisection method. Four aeroelastic models are considered in this example: three models (including the high-fidelity model) use a computational fluid dynamics solver based on the Euler equations, whereas one model uses a two-dimensional doublet-lattice method.
Empowering the Runaway Women: A fight against Violence

This paper investigates the factors behind the runaway women and the untapped phenomenon of family structures where such incidents are reported. We used broader concept of women empowerment to explore the runaway causes through the provision of living, wage jobs, education, medical and health facilities in targeted population. The respondents are selected from the shelter homes of Punjab province in Pakistan where data are collected through in-depth interviews from the Runaway women and the management of different shelter homes. The transformation of data is conducted through thematic analysis. Our result indicates that domestic violence, physical & sexual abuses, life threats, and forced marriages are the reasons behind women’s runaway. The shelter homes’ management added that illiteracy and perceived destructive role of media are the additional causes in runaway incidents. Our results provide important insights on backdrop of women runaways in developing societies. Accordingly, there is an immediate need for the government and social policy agencies to take cohesive measures to support socially affected women at their door step in order to minimize such social violence.
Academic Status and Integration of Financially-Aided Students: Insights for Retention Initiatives in Higher Education

Retention of student-beneficiaries of state-funded financial aid programs is important to ensure return of public investment. Recent studies suggest that there should be academic achievement and integration in college to guarantee their persistence and academic success. This study aimed to describe the academic status and integration of financially aided students in higher education. Also, this attempted to identify which aspect of integration is associated with academic status to generate insights relevant to developing retention initiatives. A descriptive-correlational design was employed in the research process, where a survey-questionnaire and actual academic evaluation records were used to gather needed data. All student-grantees of a state-funded financial aid program were invited to take part in accomplishing the questionnaire. Frequency count and percentage were used to summarize the two sets of nominal data and the Pearson chi-square test of association was used for correlation. Findings revealed that there was increasing attrition of the financially-aided students where specific issues on personal-social and institutional aspects of integration were noted. Also, health-related concerns of the students were found to be significantly associated with academic status. All these findings inform that retention in higher education for financially-aided students is much more complex than retention of regular, non-financially aided students, since the latter requires not only the usual student support services but also coordination of all stakeholders in the proper design and implementation of a financial aid program.
Improving the usage of prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV services in rural Tanzania

This thesis aims to investigate the use of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV services in rural Tanzania. Paper A, a systematic literature review of barriers and facilitating factors to the uptake of antiretroviral drugs for PMTCT in sub-Saharan Africa, identified many influencing factors at the level of individuals, their communities and health systems. Paper B discusses the challenges, including lack of unique identification numbers, associated with using routine clinic data for monitoring PMTCT programmes in Africa. Papers C and D use clinic data linked to community HIV cohort data to describe community-level access to PMTCT services among HIVpositive pregnant women. Paper C documented low, but increasing, coverage with PMTCT services in 2005-2012, with weaknesses throughout the PMTCT service continuum. Paper D identified women from remote areas, younger women, and unmarried women as less likely to access PMTCT services. Voluntary counselling and HIV testing before pregnancy, longer duration of HIV-infection, and more recent pregnancies were associated with improved PMTCT service use. Paper E critiques the use of a vignette within a qualitative investigation of barriers to PMTCT service uptake, suggesting that vignettes can be used successfully in rural Africa to draw out barriers to PMTCT service use. The qualitative analysis for paper F revealed a pivotal role for patient-provider interactions in PMTCT service use, through decision-making processes, trust, and features of care. The collective findings highlight the considerable barriers to uptake of PMTCT services that must be tackled in order to successfully eliminate new paediatric HIV infections. Potential positive impacts of ‘Option B+’ (initiating all HIV-positive pregnant women onto life-long antiretroviral therapy) may be limited by these barriers. Addressing health systems issues, particularly stock-outs of HIV test kits, drugs and delivery materials, and improving patient-provider relationships, may have the greatest immediate impact on PMTCT service use in this setting.
Long‐Run Asymmetries in Labor Demand: Estimating Wage Elasticities of Labor Demand Using a Fractional Panel Probit Model

Models of labor demand usually use cost or production functions to derive profit&#8208;maximizing firm performance. These models often rely on the assumption of symmetrical behavior, i.e., the response to a positive or negative wage shock of the same relative size is identical to the shock, and the estimated labor demand elasticities are the same for increasing and decreasing employment. However, behavioral economics models like loss aversion and endowment effects question the assumption of symmetry in labor demand. In addition, the influence of a labor shortage should be reflected in the investigations. Estimations of Fractional Panel Probit models for three different skill levels are applied to evaluate these findings with a large panel of German establishments. The results indicate asymmetrical structures for long&#8208;run own&#8208;wage elasticities and for some cross&#8208;wage elasticities, putting some doubt on the assumption of strict rationality in labor demand and indicating the influence of labor shortages.
Delivery and utilisation of voluntary HIV counselling and testing services among fishing communities in Uganda

The study explored, described and explained the current models of voluntary counselling and testing services delivery and analysed the extent to which a given VCT model had influenced uptake of VCT services in the fishing communities along the shores of Lake Victoria, in Wakiso District, with an aim of designing optimal VCT service delivery strategies. The study was therefore exploratory, descriptive and explanatory, and collected both qualitative and quantitative data in a three-phased approach. Phase I involved the Kasenyi fishing community respondents, while phases II and III involved VCT managers and VCT counsellors at the Entebbe and Kisubi Hospitals. The findings indicated that VCT services are generally available onsite at health facilities, and in the field through mobile VCT outreach or home-based VCT services provided at clients’ homes. Both client-initiated and health provider-initiated VCT services are available and services are integrated with other health services. Despite the availability of VCT, only about half of the respondents in phase I had accessed VCT services although almost all indicated a willingness to undergo HIV testing in the near future. The main challenges to service delivery and utilisation included limited funding and staffing as well as limited awareness in target communities. The strategies drawn are based on the need to increase availability, accessibility, acceptability and utilisation of VCT services. Key concepts Uganda, voluntary counselling and testing, fishing communities, HIV and AIDS, hospital, strategy, VCT service delivery, VCT service utilisation, integration, mobile VCT.
Merger announcements and share price return: The role of the relationship between acquiring and target firms

The authors examine, in a cumulative average abnormal return (CAAR) framework, the effect of four easily identifiable features of merger activity on acquirer/target shareholder wealth. The features considered are the relatedness of the acquiring and target firms involved in the merger, the relative sizes of the acquirer and target, the prior control position, and the medium of exchange. The results indicate that the relatedness of the acquirer and target firm and the prior control position are strong factors in determining the distribution of any wealth effects between the shareholders of the target and acquiring firms. The size and the medium of exchange are shown to be weaker factors in determining the distribution of wealth. In all cases it is seen that the shareholders of acquiring firms do not tend to benefit in the short term from the merger while those of the target firms show significant gains.
Using Ontology for Goal-Based Query to Evaluate Social Media Data

Social media has a potential to be used as a professional and social networking site to share interest. Social media such as Twitter can be used by users to share similar interests on the Internet. Despite the various existing methodologies on ontology, there are many opportunities that need to be explored. The aim of this paper focuses on structuring big data to set up a goal based on ontology to show the dependency relationship between social data and goal. At this stage of the research, we examine user trends on social media based on certain query as this query is defined as a goal. We use NodeXL to obtain and analyze data from Twitter. The results discuss the relationship for data from Twitter in relation to the specific goal. The outcome of this paper will contribute to a significant achievement that provides an important innovation in research methods in big data era to trace how data flows across the social media and how to analyze this data. © 2016 TAF Publishing. All rights reserved.
Design and Hardware Implementation of a Nine level Inverter with Less Switches Operating in Stand-Alone Mode

This paper presentss a single-phase nine-level (9L) inverter configuration which can be suitable for gridconnected renewable energy systems. The proposed inverter is realized using a T-type neutral point-clamped inverter connected in series to a flying capacitor (FC) H-bridge. A self-voltage balancing based on superfluous switching state is developed and integrated with PWM controller, which is responsible for constrain the FC voltage at one-fourth of the input dc source voltage. The advance PWM technique employs the generation of 9L waveform without using any voltage sensor, thereby reducing the complicacy of the overall control scheme. In comparison to conventional and recent configurations, generation of the 9L waveform using a lower number of components is the notable contribution. Furthermore, a compendious comparison study is included which confirms the merits of the proposed inverter against those of other state-of-the art topologies. Finally, simulation results are included for validating the feasibility of the proposed system.
The many roles of an audiologist in the early intervention of hearing loss

Graduate students in audiology have many options to consider when determining the setting in which to work. Audiologists may be employed in government, hospitals, clinics, physician’s offices, schools, or early intervention programs. An audiologist working with an early intervention program will have to assume far more roles than are described by the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing 2007 Position Statement: Principles and Guidelines for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Programs. A comprehensive review of the literature was completed to explain that audiologists, when working in early intervention, are advocates, referral sources, audiologic evaluators, relationship builders, counselors, technology gurus and equipment managers, problem solvers, and educators. Balancing each role on a daily basis can lead to an enormously satisfying career for an audiologist when working in early intervention.
Free tuition and college enrollment: evidence from New York’s Excelsior program

ABSTRACT Since the fall of 2017, New York has offered free tuition to eligible residents attending its state-funded two-year and four-year colleges under its unique Excelsior Scholarship program. We use the difference-in-differences and generalized synthetic control estimators to document that institution-level enrollment effects are negligible. Our study provides the first evidence of enrollment responses to a state-wide promise program within the four-year sector and adds new results to the fast-growing free-college literature. We propose competing channels to rationalize the obtained findings and compare Excelsior with other prominent initiatives to shed light on both design and implementation.
Analysis of the Impact of the Rule for Investment Diversification on Investment Performance using a Multi-agent Simulation

In recent years, the risk of mutual funds has become difficult to assess. Therefore, the rule for investment diversification for mutual funds was established to prevent assumption of unforeseen risk by investors. Some papers stated that the rule for investment diversification affected price formation. However, we cannot find previous studies to discuss that it affects the investment performances of investors. In this paper, we investigated how the rule for investment diversification affected investment performance of investors in financial markets where two types of investors who followed the rule and did not follow it participated at times of stable, crashing, and soaring markets by using agent-based simulations. As results, we found that the investment performances of investors who followed the rule were worse than those of investors who did not follow it in a soaring market. Moreover, large numbers of investors with the rule for investment diversifications may impede all market participants from realizing gains.
Analog Architecture Complexity Theory Empowering Ultra-Low Power Configurable Analog and Mixed Mode SoC Systems

This discussion develops a theoretical analog architecture framework similar to the well developed digital architecture theory. Designing analog systems, whether small or large scale, must optimize their architectures for energy consumption. As in digital systems, a strong architecture theory, based on experimental results, is essential for these opportunities. The recent availability of programmable and configurable analog technologies, as well as the start of analog numerical analysis, makes considering scaling of analog computation more than a purely theoretical interest. Although some aspects nicely parallel digital architecture concepts, analog architecture theory requires revisiting some of the foundations of parallel digital architectures, particularly revisiting structures where communication and memory access, instead of processor operations, that dominates complexity. This discussion shows multiple system examples from Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADC) to Vector-Matrix Multiplication (VMM), adaptive filters, image processing, sorting, and other computing directions.
The political power of social media: Technology, the public sphere, and political change

On January 17, 2001, during the impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada, loyalists in the Philippine Congress voted to set aside key evidence against him. Less than two hours after the decision was announced, thousands of Filipinos, angry that their corrupt president might be let off the hook, converged on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, a major crossroads in Manila. The protest was arranged, in part, by forwarded text messages reading, "Go 2 EDSA. Wear blk. " The crowd quickly swelled, and in the next few days, over a million people arrived, choking traffic in downtown Manila.