Poverty, equity and access to education in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made great improvements in the scale and quality of access to education in recent years and gender equality has almost been achieved in primary education (World Bank, 2008). Evidence from CREATE’s nationwide community and school survey (ComSS) confirms results from other research (such as Al-Samarrai, 2009) which suggests that poverty remains a barrier to education for many in Bangladesh, where 40% of the population remain below the poverty line (World Bank, 2009). The ComSS data suggest that policies that have been introduced to enable the poor to attend school such as free schooling; subsidised schoolbooks and stipends are not accurately targeted or having the desired effects. Targeted assistance for sections of society who are denied access to education in what is meant by equity in this paper. This goes beyond equal opportunity and seeks justice for those who have been left out. In this monograph we describe the influence of poverty (measured by income and food security) on indicators of access to education covered by CREATE’s conceptual model, such as children who drop out of school, children who have never enrolled and silent exclusion (measured through poor attendance, poor attainment and repetition). These relationships show a pattern of a series of interrelated links between poverty and exclusion from education. While the links between physical exclusion from education (never having been to school or dropping out of school) and poverty are relatively easy to understand, it is harder to understand why poor children who are in school do worse and repeat more than their peers from wealthier households. We explore correlations between indicators of silent exclusion from education and health, access to adequate school materials and the type of school attended. What we find is that those who have poor health, lack basic school equipment and live in the catchment areas of non-government schools (who are also often the poor) are more likely to be silently excluded – that is enrolled and overage, attending irregularly or poorly achieving. Using this detailed data we identify policies that will have the greatest effect on improving access to education for those currently out of school and those in school but not learning

Adoption of internet banking theory of the diffusion of innovation

The innovation diffusion theory (IDT) could be considered as one of the earliest theories that attempts to explore factors that influence an individual to adopt an innovation or a new technology. The theory suggests five key beliefs that influence the adoption of any innovation: relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability, and observability. The purpose of this study was to test part of IDT’s attributes empirically. We used Internet banking as the innovation or the targeted technology. We surveyed 1164 business and MBA students in four public universities in Malaysia. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The results showed that relative advantage, compatibility, and trialability have a significant effect on att itude. Consequently, attitude significantly aff ects the intention to use Internet banking. Based on the findings, implications to practice are offere

Magnetic monolayer Li2_{2}N: Density Functional Theory Calculations

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to investigate the electronic and magnetic structures of a two-dimensional (2D) monolayer Li$_{2}$N. It is shown that bulk Li$_{3}$N is a non-magnetic semiconductor. The non-spinpolarized DFT calculations show that $p$ electrons of N in 2D Li$_{2}$N form a narrow band at the Fermi energy $E_{\rm{F}}$ due to a low coordination number, and the density of states at the Fermi energy ($g(E_{\rm{F}}$)) is increased as compared with bulk Li$_{3}$N. The large $g(E_{\rm{F}}$) shows instability towards magnetism in Stoner's mean field model. The spin-polarized calculations reveal that 2D Li$_{2}$N is magnetic without intrinsic or impurity defects. The magnetic moment of 1.0\,$\mu_{\rm{B}}$ in 2D Li$_{2}$N is mainly contributed by the $p_{z}$ electrons of N, and the band structure shows half-metallic behavior. {Dynamic instability in planar Li$_{2}$N monolayer is observed, but a buckled Li$_{2}$N monolayer is found to be dynamically stable.} The ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling between the N atoms is also investigated to access the exchange field strength. {We found that planar (buckled) 2D Li$_{2}$N is a ferromagnetic material with Curie temperature $T_{c}$ of 161 (572) K.}Comment: Euro Phys. Lett. 2017 (Accepted

The crossover from collective motion to periphery diffusion for 2D adatom-islands on Cu(111)

The diffusion of two dimensional adatom islands (up to 100 atoms) on Cu(111) has been studied, using the self-learning Kinetic Monte Carlo (SLKMC) method [1]. A variety of multiple- and single-atom processes are revealed in the simulations, and the size dependence of the diffusion coefficients and effective diffusion barriers are calculated for each. From the tabulated frequencies of events found in the simulation, we show a crossover from diffusion due to the collective motion of the island to a regime in which the island diffuses through periphery-dominated mass transport. This crossover occurs for island sizes between 13 and 19 atoms. For islands containing 19 to 100 atoms the scaling exponent is 1.5, which is in good agreement with previous work. The diffusion of islands containing 2 to 13 atoms can be explained primarily on the basis of a linear increase of the barrier for the collective motion with the size of the island

How Personal Nostalgia Influences Giving to Charity

Charitable organizations in the U.S. have found it increasingly difficult to raise funds from donors. With a decline in the number of donors and with the number of charitable organizations increasing, there is a greater need than ever to engage the giver and encourage him/her to increase their giving to charitable organizations. NPOs (not-for-profit organizations) can facilitate this engagement through the identification of emotional constructs that can drive donor commitment to the NPO and increase charitable giving. In a recent study, Sargeant et al. (2006) have shown that charities which engage the giver emotionally are able to create stronger commitment from the giver. One such emotionally engaging construct is personal nostalgia. Personal nostalgia is a longing for a past which has been personally experienced by the individual. Personal nostalgia evokes warmth and joy arising out of remembering the past but there is also a sense of loss that the past is no more. The author has not found any study that has linked personal nostalgia to giving to charity. This research links personal nostalgia to charitable giving. From an academic standpoint it adds to the literature in the areas of personal nostalgia and not for profit marketing. From a Managerial standpoint, NPOs could benefit by identifying significant personal experiences of the donor and evoke personal nostalgia in their fundraising appeals. This research presents a theoretical model and ten research hypotheses. It shows that age, discontinuity, loneliness, past experiences and recovery from grief positively influence the donor\u27s personal nostalgia. Personal nostalgia in turn provides emotional utility and familial utility to the donor. These in turn strengthen the commitment of the donor to the charitable organization which facilitates charitable giving. Data were collected from 502 U.S. charitable donors. Structural equation modeling was utilized and tests were carried out to ascertain the significance of the hypothesized relationships. The study found support for nine out of the ten hypothesized relationships. It is argued that this study would be relevant to those NPOs which can evoke personal nostalgia among their donors. Some examples would include alumni associations of academic institutions, hospitals, etc

The Effects of Continuous Video Prompting on Teaching Daily Living Skills to Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Over the past decade, there has been a trend of the growing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses. Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects behavior, learning, and communication. Many with ASD emit problem behaviors that create challenges for learning in many areas of life, including the acquisition of daily living skills (DLS). There have been numerous interventions developed to teach individuals with ASD; some interventions are aimed at reducing problem behaviors while others teach different skills, including DLS. Over the past ten years, video-based instruction (VBI) has proven useful to teach individuals with ASD. There are several approaches to VBI, and a recent variant includes continuous video prompting (CVP). With CVP, the video plays in a repeating loop for each task step until the learner completes the task. The current study sought to determine the effectiveness of CVP on teaching a DLS to four middle school children with ASD. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of using CVP in isolation while recording the number of video loops needed to evoke correct behavior. The DLS taught to the children was collating three different colors of paper, placing the papers in an envelope, sealing the envelope, and placing the envelope in a basket. The study\u27s design was a multiple probe across participants. A baseline was applied for each participant before the introduction of the intervention, which was followed by maintenance sessions. The results of the study demonstrated that all participants improved in their performance of the selected task during the CVP intervention, with two participants maintaining higher levels of performing the task within 2 minutes when comparing baseline to maintenance sessions. The other two participants did not maintain the task when considering the 2-minute time limit. One participant reduced to near baseline levels, and the other one had variable responding. However, one of these participants did maintain the skill when not considering the 2-minute time limit. These results are promising for teaching children with ASD, but further research is needed to determine the effectiveness of CVP for teaching DLS to children with ASD

Role of Decompressive Craniectomy in severe Traumatic Brain Injury: An Institutional Experience

Objective:  The present study was designed to assess the outcome following the Decompressive Craniectomy procedures performed in our setup for patients presenting with severe traumatic brain injury. Materials and Methods:  This was a retrospective study wherein the medical records of adult patients that presented with an initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) ≤ 8 and in whom decompressive craniectomy had been carried out for severe traumatic brain injury were retrospectively analyzed. Patients in whom decompressive craniectomy had been carried out for causes other than trauma and patients with initial GCS ≥ 9 were excluded from the study. The studied parameters included age, sex, initial GCS, computed tomography (CT) brain diagnosis, and the outcome according to the Glasgow coma outcome scale (GOS). Results:  The study included 12 patients, and of these 12 patients operated with Decompressive Craniectomy for severe traumatic brain injury only 2 survived. The mortality was 83.3%. The initial GCS and age were not statistically different between the survivors and the non-survivors. Based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) only 1 patient had a good outcome. Overall, an unfavorable outcome based on the GOS score was seen in 91.7% of patients. Conclusion:  Our study concludes that Decompressive Craniectomy is associated with high mortality in patients presenting with severe traumatic brain injury and does not seem to offer a better alternative to standard medical management