Gender dimensions of child labor and street children in Brazil

The authors review child labor and the situation of street children in Brazil from a gender perspective. Relying primarily on Brazil's national household survey for 1996, the authors examine various dimensions of child labor by gender, including participation, intensity, and type of activities; the relationship between child labor, education, and future earnings; and the risks of child labor to health and well-being. They also summarize approaches to prevent and eliminate child labor and street children in Brazil. The authors find that more boys than girls work in Brazil especially in rural areas where boys are concentrated in the agricultural sector, that many children both work and attend school, and that girls attain higher levels of education than boys on average, even when considering number of hours worked. The exception is the 11-14 category. They also find that an individual's earnings are correlated with age of entry into the labor market. The earlier a child begins to work, the lower his or her earnings. And girls are more adversely affected by early labor force entry than boys, with the gender differential increasing the earlier a child begins to work. Taking poverty as the primary contributor to child labor, government programs to combat child labor are well designed in that they compensate families for a child's foregone earnings and address family factors that lead to poverty. However, programs could be improved by explicitly considering the gender dimensions of child labor. The authors point to the need for analysis of the impact of child labor on health, and specifically to the gender and sex-differentiated impacts. They suggest the need to address gender in intervention strategies for street children, as well as research on child labor in domestic service where girls are overrepresented.Children and Youth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Gender and Development,Public Health Promotion,Street Children,Street Children,Youth and Governance,Children and Youth,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health

A Novel Multi-View Table Tennis Umpiring Framework

This research investigates the development of a low-cost multi-view umpiring framework, as an alternative to the current expensive systems that are almost exclusively restricted to elite professional sports. Table tennis has been selected as the testbed because, while automating the process is challenging, it has many different complex match elements including the service, return and rallies, which are governed by a strict set of regulations. The focus is mainly on the rally element rather than the whole match. Ball detection and tracking in video frames are undertaken to determine reliably the ball position relative to key reference objects like the table surface and net, and the ball’s flight path is used to determine the rally’s status. While a low-cost option has benefits, it is technically challenging due to the limited number of cameras and generally low video resolution used. This thesis presents a portable multi-view umpiring framework that identifies each state change in a rally. It makes three significant contributions to knowledge: i) a reliable ball detection strategy that accurately detects the location of the ball in low-resolution sequences; ii) a novel framework for ball tracking using a multi-view system, and iii) a new state-machine based evaluation system for analysing table tennis rallies. In a series of ten different test scenarios, the system achieved an average of 94% system detection rate and 100% accurate decisions. A test sequence of duration 1 s can be processed in 8 s, leading to a delay of only 7 s, which is considered acceptable for practical purposes. This solution has the potential to reform the way matches are umpired, providing objectivity in resolving disputed decisions. It affords an economic technology for amateur players, while the multi-view facility is extendible to other relevant ball-based sports. Finally, the ball flight path analysis mechanism can be a valuable training tool for skills development

Tracking a table tennis ball for umpiring purposes using a multi-agent system

Tracking a table tennis ball for umpiring purposes is a challenging task as, in real-match scenarios, the ball travels fast and can become occluded or merged with other background objects. This paper presents the design of a multi-view based tracking system that can overcome the challenges of tracking a ball in real match sequences. The system has been tested on a complete table tennis rally and the results are very promising. The system is able to continuously track the ball with only marginal variations in detection. Furthermore, the initialization of the multi-camera system means it is both a portable and cost-effective solution for umpiring purposes

Tracking a table tennis ball for umpiring purposes

This study investigates tracking a table-tennis ball rapidly from video captured using low-cost equipment for umpiring purposes. A number of highly efficient algorithms have been developed for this purpose. The proposed system was tested using sequences capture from real match scenes. The preliminary results of experiments show that accurate and rapid tracking can be achieved even under challenging conditions, including occlusion and colour merging. This work can contribute to the development of an automatic umpiring system and also has the potential to provide amateur users open access to a detection tool for fast-moving, small, round objects

Evaluation of Solid State Fermetation by Aspergillus Niger to Improve the Nutritive Value of Palm Kernel Cake for Broilers

A study was conducted to examine the effects of solid-state fermentation (SSF) by Aspergillus niger on the nutrient contents of palm kernel cake (PKC). The effects of different types and levels of alcohols were investigated on the enzyme activity and nutrient contents of fermented PKC+ rice bran (RB). The results showed that the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) contents of fermented substrate (FS) (PKC+RB) were decreased by 47.3% and 22.6% respectively, while the crude protein (CP) was increased by 28.7% after 8 days of fermentation and the activity of mannanase was 109.7 U/g at 6 days of fermentation. There were no significant effects (P>0.05) of ethanol and methanol on the nutrient contents and citric acid production in the fermented substrate. An experiment was conducted to improve the fermentation process of A. niger on PKC. Rice bran was added to PKC in varying proportions. Three different proportions of rice bran (lo%, 20% and 30% of total substrate) were used and the fermentation was carried out for 8 days. The results showed that the nutrient contents of FS were not significantly (P>0.05) affected by the RB added. Nevertheless, among the different substrate groups used, 70% PKC+ 30% RB showed the lowest concentration of ochratoxin (43.3ppb). The ochratoxin level of 100% PKC substrate group was 49.8 ppb. Therefore, based on the ochratoxin level, the substrate group consisting of 70% PKC + 30% RB was used as the substrate for SSF. The fermented substrate was used as an ingredient in the broiler ration. Four experimental diets were used in the feeding trial. They were: 1) control diet (without PKC), 2) diet containing 20% PKC, 3) diet containing 20% FS and 4) diet containing 25% FS. A total of 60 birds, 15 birds per treatment, 3 weeks old Arbor Acre were used. The birds were placed in individual cages. The growth trial was continued up to 42 days. The results showed poor (Pc0.05) growth performances of birds fed diets containing FS and the best performance was recorded in birds fed control diet. There were no significant (P>0.05) differences in the performance of birds fed diet containing 20% PKC and those fed control diet. Cumulative FCR of birds fed control diet was 1.85 whereas that of birds fed dietary treatment 4 was 2.42. The study on histopathological examination of visceral organs of chickens fed diet containing FS showed some lesions of ochratoxicosis where the immune organ (bursa of Fabricius) was adversely affected. The lesions in liver were less than those of the kidney. An attempt was carried out to delay sporulation of hngal culture. In this study, 14% ammonium sulphate was observed as the best concentration to add in culture during SSF of substrate (PKC+RB) by A. niger to delay sporulation. The digestibility of fibre was improved by adding ammonium sulphate in the culture. Although the nutritive value of fermented PKC was enhanced by SSF with A. niger, the feeding trial carried out in broilers showed no beneficial effect of using the fermented substrate as a ration component in poultry feed. Nevertheless, the information obtained in this study would be beneficial in the understanding of the biochemical changes that occur in PKC during SSF with A. niger

Civil Rights in the Workplace: It\u27s Time to Cut the Excess and Get to the Truth

On February 8, 1964, during the last few hours before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act, thanks to an individual described as a “racist, male octogenarian,” Congress haphazardly added “sex” as a prohibited basis for discrimination alongside race, color, religion, and national origin under Title VII1 of the Act. It was not until two decades later, in 1986, that the Supreme Court recognized sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination under Title VII. Five years later, Anita Hill’s riveting public testimony, during the nomination hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas, ignited a nationwide discussion on sexual harassment. A quarter century later, a celebrity tweet in 2017 asking for “me too” sexual harassment stories reignited the conversation and reminded us that sexual harassment was not only an active issue but a hugely pervasive problem in the American culture and workplace

A Study on student choice decision of center for Human Resource Development (CHRD) Programme in Yangon University of Economic

Human Resource Development Programmes are necessary and important process in the drive for national economic development and growth. Therefore, the student choice of HRD Programmes are becoming the important part to review. This study described the evolution of CHRD Programmes and analyzed the student choice decision factors of CHRD Programmes in Yangon University of Economics. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics. Primary data were collected by using well-structured questionnaire, which measures student choice decision with five factors; namely location, reputation of the university, price (cost of education), employment opportunities and educational facilities. This study found that student choice decision relies on all these factors. However, the correlation between student choice decision and reputation of the university and price (cost of education) is the strongest. It is also found that CHRD Programmes of Yangon University of Economics provides employment opportunities for students, based on the correlation result. It would be better if the university could provide attractive and useful information about CHRD Programmes on the website of the university

A systems biology analysis of brain microvascular endothelial cell lipotoxicity.

BackgroundNeurovascular inflammation is associated with a number of neurological diseases including vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, which are increasingly important causes of morbidity and mortality around the world. Lipotoxicity is a metabolic disorder that results from accumulation of lipids, particularly fatty acids, in non-adipose tissue leading to cellular dysfunction, lipid droplet formation, and cell death.ResultsOur studies indicate for the first time that the neurovascular circulation also can manifest lipotoxicity, which could have major effects on cognitive function. The penetration of integrative systems biology approaches is limited in this area of research, which reduces our capacity to gain an objective insight into the signal transduction and regulation dynamics at a systems level. To address this question, we treated human microvascular endothelial cells with triglyceride-rich lipoprotein (TGRL) lipolysis products and then we used genome-wide transcriptional profiling to obtain transcript abundances over four conditions. We then identified regulatory genes and their targets that have been differentially expressed through analysis of the datasets with various statistical methods. We created a functional gene network by exploiting co-expression observations through a guilt-by-association assumption. Concomitantly, we used various network inference algorithms to identify putative regulatory interactions and we integrated all predictions to construct a consensus gene regulatory network that is TGRL lipolysis product specific.ConclusionSystem biology analysis has led to the validation of putative lipid-related targets and the discovery of several genes that may be implicated in lipotoxic-related brain microvascular endothelial cell responses. Here, we report that activating transcription factors 3 (ATF3) is a principal regulator of TGRL lipolysis products-induced gene expression in human brain microvascular endothelial cell