2,296 research outputs found

    Extended family caring for children orphaned by AIDS: balancing essential work and caregiving in a high HIV prevalence nations.

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    While over 90 per cent of the 15 million children who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS are cared for by family members, there is little information about whether adults can meet orphans' essential caregiving needs while working to economically survive. Using a survey we conducted in Botswana of 1033 working adults, we analyse the experience of adults who are caring for orphans. Over one-third of working adults were caring for orphans and many with few financial resources: 82% were living on household incomes below US$10 purchasing power parity adjusted per person per day. Because of their caregiving responsibilities, they were less able to supplement income with overtime, weekend, evening, or night work. At the same time caregiving responsibilities meant orphan caregivers spent fewer hours caring for their own children and other family members. Nearly half of orphan caregivers had difficulties meeting their children's needs, and nearly 75% weren't able to meet with children's teachers. Pay loss at work compounded the problems: One-quarter of orphan caregivers reported having to take unpaid leave to meet sick childcare needs and nearly half reported being absent from work for children's routine health care. This paper makes clear that if families are to provide adequate care for orphans while economically surviving there needs to be increases in social supports and improvements in working conditions

    Homotopy types of stabilizers and orbits of Morse functions on surfaces

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    Let MM be a smooth compact surface, orientable or not, with boundary or without it, PP either the real line R1R^1 or the circle S1S^1, and Diff(M)Diff(M) the group of diffeomorphisms of MM acting on C∞(M,P)C^{\infty}(M,P) by the rule h⋅f↦f∘h−1h\cdot f\mapsto f \circ h^{-1}, where h∈Diff(M)h\in Diff(M) and f∈C∞(M,P)f \in C^{\infty}(M,P). Let f:M→Pf:M \to P be a Morse function and O(f)O(f) be the orbit of ff under this action. We prove that πkO(f)=πkM\pi_k O(f)=\pi_k M for k≥3k\geq 3, and π2O(f)=0\pi_2 O(f)=0 except for few cases. In particular, O(f)O(f) is aspherical, provided so is MM. Moreover, π1O(f)\pi_1 O(f) is an extension of a finitely generated free abelian group with a (finite) subgroup of the group of automorphisms of the Reeb graph of ff. We also give a complete proof of the fact that the orbit O(f)O(f) is tame Frechet submanifold of C∞(M,P)C^{\infty}(M,P) of finite codimension, and that the projection Diff(M)→O(f)Diff(M) \to O(f) is a principal locally trivial S(f)S(f)-fibration.Comment: 49 pages, 8 figures. This version includes the proof of the fact that the orbits of a finite codimension of tame action of tame Lie group on tame Frechet manifold is a tame Frechet manifold itsel

    Property-Based Testing - The ProTest Project

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    The ProTest project is an FP7 STREP on property based testing. The purpose of the project is to develop software engineering approaches to improve reliability of service-oriented networks; support fault-finding and diagnosis based on specified properties of the system. And to do so we will build automated tools that will generate and run tests, monitor execution at run-time, and log events for analysis. The Erlang / Open Telecom Platform has been chosen as our initial implementation vehicle due to its robustness and reliability within the telecoms sector. It is noted for its success in the ATM telecoms switches by Ericsson, one of the project partners, as well as for multiple other uses such as in facebook, yahoo etc. In this paper we provide an overview of the project goals, as well as detailing initial progress in developing property based testing techniques and tools for the concurrent functional programming language Erlang

    Pluto's global surface composition through pixel-by-pixel Hapke modeling of New Horizons Ralph/LEISA data

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    On July 14th 2015, NASA's New Horizons mission gave us an unprecedented detailed view of the Pluto system. The complex compositional diversity of Pluto's encounter hemisphere was revealed by the Ralph/LEISA infrared spectrometer on board of New Horizons. We present compositional maps of Pluto defining the spatial distribution of the abundance and textural properties of the volatiles methane and nitrogen ices and non-volatiles water ice and tholin. These results are obtained by applying a pixel-by-pixel Hapke radiative transfer model to the LEISA scans. Our analysis focuses mainly on the large scale latitudinal variations of methane and nitrogen ices and aims at setting observational constraints to volatile transport models. Specifically, we find three latitudinal bands: the first, enriched in methane, extends from the pole to 55deg N, the second dominated by nitrogen, continues south to 35deg N, and the third, composed again mainly of methane, reaches 20deg N. We demonstrate that the distribution of volatiles across these surface units can be explained by differences in insolation over the past few decades. The latitudinal pattern is broken by Sputnik Planitia, a large reservoir of volatiles, with nitrogen playing the most important role. The physical properties of methane and nitrogen in this region are suggestive of the presence of a cold trap or possible volatile stratification. Furthermore our modeling results point to a possible sublimation transport of nitrogen from the northwest edge of Sputnik Planitia toward the south.Comment: 43 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in Icaru

    Detection of an ultra-bright submillimeter galaxy in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field using AzTEC/ASTE

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    We report the detection of an extremely bright (∼\sim37 mJy at 1100 μ\mum and ∼\sim91 mJy at 880 μ\mum) submillimeter galaxy (SMG), AzTEC-ASTE-SXDF1100.001 (hereafter referred to as SXDF1100.001 or Orochi), discovered in 1100 μ\mum observations of the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field using AzTEC on ASTE. Subsequent CARMA 1300 μ\mum and SMA 880 μ\mum observations successfully pinpoint the location of Orochi and suggest that it has two components, one extended (FWHM of ∼\sim 4′′^{\prime\prime}) and one compact (unresolved). Z-Spec on CSO has also been used to obtain a wide band spectrum from 190 to 308 GHz, although no significant emission/absorption lines are found. The derived upper limit to the line-to-continuum flux ratio is 0.1--0.3 (2 σ\sigma) across the Z-Spec band. Based on the analysis of the derived spectral energy distribution from optical to radio wavelengths of possible counterparts near the SMA/CARMA peak position, we suggest that Orochi is a lensed, optically dark SMG lying at z∼3.4z \sim 3.4 behind a foreground, optically visible (but red) galaxy at z∼1.4z \sim 1.4. The deduced apparent (i.e., no correction for magnification) infrared luminosity (LIRL_{\rm IR}) and star formation rate (SFR) are 6×10136 \times 10^{13} L⊙L_{\odot} and 11000 M⊙M_{\odot} yr−1^{-1}, respectively, assuming that the LIRL_{\rm IR} is dominated by star formation. These values suggest that Orochi will consume its gas reservoir within a short time scale (3×1073 \times 10^{7} yr), which is indeed comparable to those in extreme starbursts like the centres of local ULIRGs.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figure

    Transformational Sexualities: Motivations of women who pay for sexual services

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    Previous research on client motivations to purchase sexual services in the UK has predominantly focused on the experiences of men. Women who buy sex have largely been overlooked, as it is commonly assumed that women provide, rather than purchase sexual services. In addressing this empirical absence, this article examines data gained from 50 interviews with women clients and sex workers. It examines the reasons why women decide to purchase sexual services in the UK. We argue that the increasing importance of contemporary capitalism and consumerism has shaped women’s engagement in the sex industry as clients. We show how women’s sexual agency and assertiveness as clients, inverts the female sex worker/male client binary assumed to characterize commercial sex and illustrates the overlap and convergence of male and female sexuality. Our research thus contributes to an understanding of female sexuality more broadly, as exemplifying the hallmarks of ‘transformational sexualities’ in cosmopolitanism (Plummer, 2015)
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