8,907 research outputs found
Behavioral Economics and Developmental Science: A New Framework to Support Early Childhood Interventions
Public policies have actively responded to an emergent social and neuroscientific evidence base documenting the benefits of targeting services to children during the earliest period of their development. But problems of low utilization, inconsistent participation, and low retention continue to present themselves as challenges. Although most interventions recognize and address structural and psycho-social barriers to parent’s engagement, few take seriously the decision making roles of parents. Using insights from the behavioral sciences, we revisit assumptions about the presumed behavior of parents in a developmental context. We then describe ways in which this framework informs features of interventions that can be designed to augment the intended impacts of early development, education and care initiatives by improving parent engagement
Differential equation approximations for Markov chains
We formulate some simple conditions under which a Markov chain may be
approximated by the solution to a differential equation, with quantifiable
error probabilities. The role of a choice of coordinate functions for the
Markov chain is emphasised. The general theory is illustrated in three
examples: the classical stochastic epidemic, a population process model with
fast and slow variables, and core-finding algorithms for large random
hypergraphs.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/07-PS121 the Probability
Surveys (http://www.i-journals.org/ps/) by the Institute of Mathematical
Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Structure of large random hypergraphs
The theme of this paper is the derivation of analytic formulae for certain
large combinatorial structures. The formulae are obtained via fluid limits of
pure jump type Markov processes, established under simple conditions on the
Laplace transforms of their Levy kernels. Furthermore, a related Gaussian
approximation allows us to describe the randomness which may persist in the
limit when certain parameters take critical values. Our method is quite
general, but is applied here to vertex identifiability in random hypergraphs. A
vertex v is identifiable in n steps if there is a hyperedge containing v all of
whose other vertices are identifiable in fewer than n steps. We say that a
hyperedge is identifiable if every one of its vertices is identifiable. Our
analytic formulae describe the asymptotics of the number of identifiable
vertices and the number of identifiable hyperedges for a Poisson random
hypergraph on a set of N vertices, in the limit as N goes to infinity.Comment: Revised version with minor conceptual improvements and additional
discussion. 32 pages, 5 figure
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Multi-Nozzle Biopolymer Deposition for Freeform Fabrication of Tissue Constructs
Advanced freeform fabrication techniques have been recently used for the construction of tissue
scaffolds because of the process repeatability and capability of high accuracy in fabrication
resolution at the macro and micro scales. Among many applicable tissue scaffolding materials,
polymeric materials have unique properties in terms of the biocompatibility and degradation, and
have thus been widely utilized in tissue engineering applications. Hydrogels, such as alginate,
has been one of the most important polymer scaffolding materials because of its biocompatibility
and internal structure similarity to that of the extracellular matrix of many tissues, and its
relatively moderate processing. Three-dimensional deposition has been an entreating freeform
fabrication method of biopolymer and particularly hydrogel scaffolds because of its readiness to
deposit fluids at ambient temperatures. This paper presents a recent development of biopolymer
deposition based freeform fabrication for 3-diemnsinal tissue scaffolds. The system
configuration of multi-nozzles used in the deposition of sodium alginate solutions and Poly-?-
Caprolactone (PCL) are described. Studies on polymer deposition feasibility and structural
formability are conducted, and the preliminary results are presented.Mechanical Engineerin
A Radio Spectral Line Study of the 2-Jy IRAS-NVSS Sample: Part I
We present results from an on-going survey for the HI 21 cm line and the OH
18 cm lines in IR galaxies with the Arecibo 305 m Radio Telescope. The
observations of 85 galaxies extracted from the 2 Jy IRAS-NVSS sample in the
R.A. (B1950) range 20 h-00 h are reported in this paper. We detected the HI 21
cm line in 82 of these galaxies, with 18 being new detections, and the OH 18 cm
lines in 7 galaxies, with 4 being new detections. In some cases, the HI spectra
show the classic double-horned or single-peaked emission profiles. However, the
majority exhibit distorted HI spectral features indicating that the galaxies
are in interacting and/or merging systems. From these HI and OH observations,
various properties of the sample are derived and reported.Comment: 38 pages, 7 figures, 9 tables. Accepted for publication in A
Negotiating equity in UK universities.
Description of the project The research involved six case studies of higher education institutions across England, Scotland and Wales. The project aims were:to explore staff experiences of equity issues and institutional equity policies. Participants were drawn from different occupational backgrounds and a variety of socio-cultural groups paying attention also to gender, sexual orientation, ‘race’/ethnicity, disability, age and religio to conduct a critical discourse analysis of equity policies in the six institution to gather the views of senior manager-academics and administrators on their institutional equality policies, and how these relate to national policie to identify challenges, inadequacies, examples of good practice, and constraints/incentives in relation to equity policies at institutional and sector level
On the X-ray Properties of OH Megamaser Sources: Chandra Snapshot Observations
We present Chandra snapshot observations for a sample of 7 sources selected
from the Arecibo OH megamaser (OHM) survey at z~0.13-0.22 and with far-infrared
luminosities in excess of 10^{11} L_sun. In contrast with the known H2O
megamasers, which are mostly associated with powerful Active Galactic Nuclei
(AGN), the situation is far less clear for OHMs, which have been poorly studied
in the X-ray band thus far. All of the observed sources are X-ray weak, with
only one OHM, IRAS FSC 03521+0028 (z=0.15), being detected by Chandra (with 5
counts). The results from this pilot program indicate that the X-ray emission,
with luminosities of less than ~10^{42} erg/s, is consistent with that from
star formation (as also suggested in some cases by the optical spectra) and
low-luminosity AGN emission. If an AGN is present, its contribution to the
broad-band emission of OHM galaxies is likely modest. Under reasonable
assumptions about the intrinsic X-ray spectral shape, the observed count
distribution from stacking analysis suggests absorption of ~10^{22} cm^{-2}.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Refugee urbanism: seeing asylum ‘like a city’
This paper explores how asylum might be understood from an urban perspective. The paper focuses on a range of conceptual interventions mobilized around the notion of ‘seeing like a city’, which foreground the pragmatic and compositional nature of urban politics. These debates are placed in conversation with discussions over the changing nature of relations of power, to examine the dispersal of asylum seekers in the UK, arguing that current research on dispersal has tended to focus too exclusively on the regulatory and sovereign aspects of this policy. In doing so, such research has overlooked the urban manifestation of dispersal as a process that has created new knowledges and forms of expertise, whilst being sustained through spatially complex relations of present authority and distant accountability. In exploring these relations, the paper argues that a focus on ‘refugee urbanism’ may open productive new avenues for critically exploring urban asylum
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