Measuring destitution : integrating qualitative and quantitative approaches in the analysis of survey data

Through detailed discussion of a methodology developed to quantify destitution in rural Ethiopia, the paper raises a number of issues and ideas concerning the integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches during survey analysis. It highlights the critical importance of using contextual data to inform quantitative analysis, for example in defining and scaling locally-appropriate indicators of such basic parameters as human capital and housing quality. An index of physical labour capacity, adjusted for chronic illness and disability, is suggested as a more meaningful measure of household human capital in such a low-skill, low-opportunity livelihood system than the more commonly-used education or literacy variables. The potential application of this index to calculating “real” or effective household dependency ratios is also explored. The advantages and disadvantages of “qualitative” versus “objective” methods of weighting composite indices are compared. Among the innovative aspects of the analysis is the triangulation of an “idea” destitution index constructed from discrete quantified variables with a subjective, holistic self-assessment of the household’s status. The very high correlation of results from the two approaches validates both the methods and the findings, and exemplifies the value of combined data types in representing the multi-dimensional reality of extreme poverty. In operationalising the livelihoods approach, the focus is on quantifying access to (not merely ownership of) key assets, and outcomes. Again, the importance of contextual data and of locally-appropriate interpretations of the framework’s parameters emerges as of key importance. Although the discussion necessarily involves a degree of Ethiopia-specific information, the methods and issues raised are of much broader application to applied development research, and to the current “Q-squared” debate on combining methodologies

Hosting Our Hunters

This publication provides information on how to create contact points, provide facilities, meals, mail service, transportation, care of game, locker plant services, and game recipes, as well as hunting facts

Gadget-Textile Painting

Guide for gadget-textile painting discusses pre-planning, equipment, and steps to painting on textile with gadgets

What Makes A Good Project Leader?

Guide of a good project leader discusses addresses duties, giving demonstrations and follow-up, and cooperation of club members

Academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of final year Education Studies students at university

This work explores the relationships between academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of 179 final year Education Studies students attending a single university in England. Adopting a mixed-methods design, with data collection employing a combination of questionnaires and individual research interviews, findings suggest that all participants exhibited some measurable disposition towards academic boredom with traditional lectures and work leading to the completion of assignments the main sites and triggers for the actual onset of academic boredom itself. Amid overwhelmingly encouraging responses from course expectations to course demands, reflecting the successful promotion of deep ways of working, as well as a clear sense of satisfaction with their teaching and learning environment overall, cluster analysis reveals the presence of five structurally related groups of students with profiles which help identify those typically more engaged and effective learners from others. Path analysis reveals a series of complex inter-connections with academic boredom emerging as a strong and direct predictor of surface ways and organised effort as well as contributing indirectly towards degree outcome as a whole. The implications for boredom mitigation are considered

An experimental study of the rearrangements of valence protons and neutrons amongst single-particle orbits during double {\beta} decay in 100Mo

The rearrangements of protons and neutrons amongst the valence single-particle orbitals during double {\beta} decay of 100Mo have been determined by measuring cross sections in (d,p), (p,d), (3He,{\alpha}) and (3He,d) reactions on 98,100Mo and 100,102Ru targets. The deduced nucleon occupancies reveal significant discrepancies when compared with theoretical calculations; the same calculations have previously been used to determine the nuclear matrix element associated with the decay probability of double {\beta} decay of the 100Mo system.Comment: 18 pages, 13 figures, 37 pages of supplemental informatio

Randomised trial of coconut oil, olive oil or butter on blood lipids and other cardiovascular risk factors in healthy men and women.

INTRODUCTION: High dietary saturated fat intake is associated with higher blood concentrations of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), an established risk factor for coronary heart disease. However, there is increasing interest in whether various dietary oils or fats with different fatty acid profiles such as extra virgin coconut oil may have different metabolic effects but trials have reported inconsistent results. We aimed to compare changes in blood lipid profile, weight, fat distribution and metabolic markers after four weeks consumption of 50 g daily of one of three different dietary fats, extra virgin coconut oil, butter or extra virgin olive oil, in healthy men and women in the general population. DESIGN: Randomised clinical trial conducted over June and July 2017. SETTING: General community in Cambridgeshire, UK. PARTICIPANTS: Volunteer adults were recruited by the British Broadcasting Corporation through their websites. Eligibility criteria were men and women aged 50-75 years, with no known history of cancer, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, not on lipid lowering medication, no contraindications to a high-fat diet and willingness to be randomised to consume one of the three dietary fats for 4 weeks. Of 160 individuals initially expressing an interest and assessed for eligibility, 96 were randomised to one of three interventions; 2 individuals subsequently withdrew and 94 men and women attended a baseline assessment. Their mean age was 60 years, 67% were women and 98% were European Caucasian. Of these, 91 men and women attended a follow-up assessment 4 weeks later. INTERVENTION: Participants were randomised to extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil or unsalted butter and asked to consume 50 g daily of one of these fats for 4 weeks, which they could incorporate into their usual diet or consume as a supplement. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was change in serum LDL-C; secondary outcomes were change in total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (TC and HDL-C), TC/HDL-C ratio and non-HDL-C; change in weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, per cent body fat, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose and C reactive protein. RESULTS: LDL-C concentrations were significantly increased on butter compared with coconut oil (+0.42, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.65 mmol/L, P<0.0001) and with olive oil (+0.38, 95% CI 0.16 to 0.60 mmol/L, P<0.0001), with no differences in change of LDL-C in coconut oil compared with olive oil (-0.04, 95% CI -0.27 to 0.19 mmol/L, P=0.74). Coconut oil significantly increased HDL-C compared with butter (+0.18, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.30 mmol/L) or olive oil (+0.16, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.28 mmol/L). Butter significantly increased TC/HDL-C ratio and non-HDL-C compared with coconut oil but coconut oil did not significantly differ from olive oil for TC/HDL-C and non-HDL-C. There were no significant differences in changes in weight, BMI, central adiposity, fasting blood glucose, systolic or diastolic blood pressure among any of the three intervention groups. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Two different dietary fats (butter and coconut oil) which are predominantly saturated fats, appear to have different effects on blood lipids compared with olive oil, a predominantly monounsaturated fat with coconut oil more comparable to olive oil with respect to LDL-C. The effects of different dietary fats on lipid profiles, metabolic markers and health outcomes may vary not just according to the general classification of their main component fatty acids as saturated or unsaturated but possibly according to different profiles in individual fatty acids, processing methods as well as the foods in which they are consumed or dietary patterns. These findings do not alter current dietary recommendations to reduce saturated fat intake in general but highlight the need for further elucidation of the more nuanced relationships between different dietary fats and health. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT03105947; Results

An application of the revised ‘Lecturer Self-Efficacy Questionnaire’: an evidence-based route for transformational change

This article presents findings arising from the first UK application of a revised 70-item lecturer self-efficacy questionnaire recently developed for use in the Australian higher education context. Intended to probe and systematically measure confidence in the core functions of research, teaching and other academic or service-related activities among lecturers, the institutional case-study presented here suggests that this instrument has considerable diagnostic potential for leaders, managers and administrators wishing to explore operational aspects of policy, evaluate strategy and initiate professional dialogue at a variety of levels. Its indicated value as a diagnostic tool suggests a relevance not only to higher but also to further education, where degree-level provision is established and likely to increase. Following an earlier rigorous reassessment and re-evaluation of the questionnaire’s validity and reliability, including a robust statistical analysis of its associated scales and subscales, findings indicate that respondents felt most confident across all aspects of teaching – the core function which also occupied most of their time. Perhaps surprisingly for the institution involved in the case study, research – which occupied the least amount of time – generally displayed the most pronounced confidence hierarchy, from activities attached to data collection and analysis to leading funded research projects. Outcomes for other academic or service-related activities were generally mixed, but confidence attached to internal academic events was higher than that linked to external ones. Taken together, the findings, including the effects of career stage, qualifications, gender, research output and workload distribution, were considered sufficient to initiate an appropriate strategic response directed towards transformational change. The limitations of the questionnaire are considered in detail

Estimation of Individual Micro Data from Aggregated Open Data

In this paper, we propose a method of estimating individual micro data from aggregated open data based on semi-supervised learning and conditional probability. Firstly, the proposed method collects aggregated open data and support data, which are related to the individual micro data to be estimated. Then, we perform the locality sensitive hashing (LSH) algorithm to find a subset of the support data that is similar to the aggregated open data and then classify them by using the Ensemble classification model, which is learned by semi-supervised learning. Finally, we use conditional probability to estimate the individual micro data by finding the most suitable record for the probability distribution of the individual micro data among the classification results. To evaluate the performance of the proposed method, we estimated the individual building data where the fire occurred using the aggregated fire open data. According to the experimental results, the micro data estimation performance of the proposed method is 59.41% on average in terms of accuracy.Comment: 7 page