Investigating ICTs for Education in Marginalized Communities

The Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal agenda to eliminate poverty through sustainable development by 2030. When it was adopted in 2015, the international community recognized that education was essential for the success of all seventeen of its goals. Ambitions for education are captured in Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The United Nations has explicitly stated the importance of using ICTs in achieving educational opportunities. Since then, very few studies have tackled the issue. The findings so far, do not provide detailed guidance on the impact of ICTs in this domain. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this gap by integrating research in the fields of Information Systems, Development studies, and Psychology to understand the factors for facilitating educational objectives through ICTs within marginalized communities

Oculomotor Task-Switching Performance Improves and Persists Following a Single Bout of Aerobic Exercise

Executive function includes the core components of response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Interestingly, an accumulating evidence has reported that inhibitory control and working memory improve following a single bout of exercise. It is, however, largely unclear whether cognitive flexibility elicits a similar post-exercise benefit. Accordingly, Chapter Two of my thesis examined whether 20-min of aerobic exercise provides an immediate post-exercise ‘boost’ to cognitive flexibility. Chapter Three examined for how long a putative post-exercise benefit persists. Cognitive flexibility was examined via an AABB task-switching paradigm wherein participants alternated between a well-practiced and a novel oculomotor task pre- and post-exercise. Chapter Two showed an immediate post-exercise benefit to cognitive flexibility and Chapter Three demonstrated that the benefit persists for up to 47-min post exercise. As such, my thesis provides convergent evidence that a single bout of exercise benefits each core component of executive function

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation examines the nature and consequences of gendered time poverty in northern Mozambique. Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa indicates that women are more likely to be time poor than men as they bear the double burden of productive and reproductive work in the household. This gender division of labor, dictated by social norms, constrains women's freedom, agency, and well-being. Based on fieldwork in the Nampula province of Mozambique in 2013 this dissertation examines gender differences in time poverty through both Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) set of indexes and a measure of work intensity. The analysis shows that women are both more time poor compared to men and they are more likely to experience high levels of work intensity. The investigation of the determinants of time poverty shows that women's access to economic resources, notably education and assets including land, has no bearing on women's time poverty, and gender is the main determinant of time poverty. Given women's critical role in food production and provisioning, the dissertation examines the consequences of unequal gender roles and time poverty of women for household food security and nutrition outcomes. Analysis focuses on the likely adverse effects of unforeseen events, such as illness in the family, on food security of smallholder farming households. The theoretical model and simulations of the model show that an unexpected crisis increases the demand for labor provided by the woman to which most women respond by reducing their work hours on the farm and by reducing their leisure time. The latter outcome results in deterioration of the woman's labor productivity. Overall, the household suffers a loss in farm production, which is the main source of household's food consumption. The dissertation contributes both new evidence on gendered time poverty and its consequences and a gendered model of the agricultural household that integrates role of social norms. The findings suggest that the efforts to increase agricultural productivity need not focus exclusively on agricultural aspects. The policy emphasis on reduction of women's unpaid workload in the short run along with a target to create redistribution of reproductive work in the long run would yield considerable benefits for agricultural sector

Visualizing Google Scholar Profile of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan using PoP and VOSviewer: a tribute to Father of Library Science in India

Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan was the well-known librarian and mathematician from India. He was also called the father of Indian librarianship. He made India library conscious in particular and he influenced the thinking of library world in general. It is mainly because of his efforts that library & information science became a subject of study and research. Dr S.R. Ranganathan has recorded 307 publications since 1931 including his contributed books, book chapters, reports, and journal articles, texts of invited speeches or special lecture. He received a total of 5455 citations with h-index 27. Highest citations (306) were received in the year 2017. Also, it was observed, “The Five Laws of Library Science” published in the year 1931 received highest citation 1213. Most of his collaborative works or articles in total, are with Neelameghan, A and Gopinath, M A

So You Think You Can Exercise: The Gap Between Exercise Confidence And Physical Activity Among Samoan Adults

Samoa is experiencing one of the highest prevalence of overweight and obesity in the world, placing its population at increased risk of developing several noncommunicable diseases including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The role of physical activity in reducing the burden of these diseases and overweight is well-established. Exercise self-efficacy or confidence is a predictor, if not determinant, of recreational physical activity. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to assess the relationship between exercise confidence and levels of recreational physical activity among Samoan adults. We confirm that exercise confidence is correlated with time spent exercising. However, despite considerable spread in exercise confidence scores, participation in recreational physical activity is extremely limited. Social support may mediate the association between confidence and activity. The results suggest that a considerable share of the population reports high levels of confidence in their ability to engage in exercise, but this is not translating into actual physical activity. Other barriers to exercise need to be addressed among this group. Conversely, a large group also report low levels of confidence, indicating the potential for interventions promoting exercise self-efficacy as a way to increase participation in exercise

The Effects of Organ-based Tube Current Modulation on Radiation Dose and Image Quality in Computed Tomography Imaging

The purpose of this thesis was to quantify dose and noise performance of organ-dose-based tube current modulation (ODM) through experimental studies with an anthropomorphic phantom and simulations with a voxelized phantom library. Tube current modulation is a dose reduction technique that modulates radiation dose in angular and/or slice directions based on patient attenuation. ODM technique proposed by GE Healthcare further reduces tube current for anterior source positions, without increasing current for posterior positions. Axial CT scans at 120 kV were performed on head and chest phantoms (Rando Alderson Research Laboratories, Stanford, CA) on an ODM-equipped scanner (Optima CT660, GE Healthcare, Chalfont St Giles, England). Dosimeters quantified dose to breast, lung, heart, spine, eye lens and brain regions (mobile MOSFET Dosimetry System, Best Medical, Ottawa, Canada) for ODM, AutomA (z-axis modulation), and SmartmA (angular and z-axis modulation) settings. Noise standard deviation was calculated in brain and chest regions of reconstructed images. To study a variety of patient sizes, Monte Carlo dose simulations, validated with experimental data, were performed on voxelized head and chest phantoms. Experimental studies on anthropomorphic chest and head phantoms demonstrated reduction in dose at all dosimeter locations with respect to SmartmA, with dose changes of -31.3% (breast), -20.7% (lung), -24.4% (heart), -5.9% (spine), -18.9% (eye), and -10.1% (brain). Simulation studies using voxelized phantoms indicated average dose changes of -33.4% (breast), -20.2% (lung), -18.6% (spine), -20.0% (eye) and -7.2% (brain). ODM reduced dose to the brain and lung tissues, however these tissues would experience up to 15.2% and 13.1% dose increase respectively at noise standard deviation equal to SmartmA. ODM reduced dose to the eye lens in 22 of 28 phantoms (-1.2% to -12.4%), had no change in dose for one phantom, and increased dose for four phantoms (0.7% to 2.3% ) with respect to SmartmA at equal noise standard deviation. All phantoms demonstrated breast dose reduction (-2.1% to -27.6%) at equal noise standard deviation. Experimental and simulation studies over a range of patient sizes indicate that ODM has the potential to reduce dose to radiosensitive organs by 5 - 38% with a limited increase in image noise

Variable Gain Amplifier with Digital Control

The design of CMOS variable gain amplifier (VGA) with digital control is presented in this project. The first stage of VGA is a two-stage op-amp connected in a voltage follower configuration with a series of resistors and transmission gates at the output followed by the second stage which consists of a two stage Op-amp in parallel with a series of transmission gates and resistors which is used to control the gain of the circuit. The two-stage op amp is designed using gm/Id methodology. The gain of this two-stage op amp is 80.34 dB, phase margin is 94.58º, input common mode range (ICMR) range is from −893.21 mV to 894.22 mV, output swing is from −888.34 mV to 872.13 mV. The gain of the variable gain amplifier ranges from -28.99 dB to 28.62 dB with power consumption of 6.80989512e−11W. The simulation is performed using Cadence Virtuoso in 45nm technology with a supply voltage range of +900 mV to −900 mV