Poverty, Maternal Depression, Family Status and Children's Cognitive and Behavioural Development in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

Improving children's lives is high on the UK policy agenda. In this study for a recent birth cohort of UK children we examine how three aspects of parental resources - income, mother's mental well-being and family status - in early childhood enhance or compromise their children's cognitive and behavioural development. As well as examining how these three aspects of parental resources separately and jointly affect children's well-being, we also enquire whether persistent poverty or persistent maternal depression are more deleterious for children's current well-being than periodic episodes of poverty and depression. We find strong associations between poverty and young children's intellectual and behavioural development, and persistent poverty was found to be particularly important in relation to children's cognitive development. Maternal depression (net of other factors) was more weakly related to cognitive development but strongly related to whether children were exhibiting behaviour problems, and persistent depression amplified the situation. Family status, net of other factors (most noticeably poverty), was only weakly associated with children's development

Migrant Detention and the Inequities in Healthcare Access

Immigration removal centres (IRC) have been deployed by the government in an attempt to secure the nation’s borders. The normalisation of actions in the controlling of migration flows has been initiated by a perception placed on migrants as being a threat to the welfare and security of society and therefore “undeserving” as referred to by Foucault (2003). This research study aims to uncover and critique the political institutional structures that are placing undocumented migrants at health risk whilst going through the process of determining their residential and legal status. The findings of this research project indicate that equity ceases to exist at the point where border enforcement and the right to healthcare converge. There is a new penal system that is being constructed within immigration detention that has enabled the mechanisms of disempowerment of migrant detainees to be conceived. The analysis of this research project further reveals the perilous conditions of healthcare for migrants in UK’s IRCs and the characteristics of UK immigration policy in providing healthcare to detainees. This research study explores the nexus of neoliberalism and state power, whereby detainees, deprived of their liberty and rights, become sources of private profits. The withholding of healthcare, the weak implementation of rights and policies, the discretionary use of state power to overrule medical advice and health rights is evidenced in the construction of the “hostile environment”. Agamben’s concepts of the state of exception and the camp, Schmitt’s liberal legality and the social determinants of health (SDH) are used to explore how the hostile environment impacts on the accessing of healthcare for migrant detainees. Interviews with twelve former detainees and five service providers provide the empirical material at the heart of this research project. The practices relating to health and healthcare in immigration detention highlights how the camp paradigm extends beyond the walls of detention centres through expectations of other public services to do the work of border control. This strange combination of public and private sector responsibilities and interests, contradicts and causes tensions in doctors’ loyalties to the welfare of their patients and to the securitisation interest of the Home Office (HO), and other processes. Doctors are presented as advocates of patients, and of NGOs which use legal expertise regarding detainees’ rights to counter the detention system’s abusive obstruction of detainees’ access to health

Thermoelectric Amplification of Phonons in Graphene

Amplification of acoustic phonons due to an external temperature gredient ($\nabla T$) in Graphene was studied theoretically. The threshold temperature gradient $(\nabla T)_0^{g}$ at which absorption switches over to amplification in Graphene was evaluated at various frequencies $\omega_q$ and temperatures $T$. For $T = 77K$ and frequency $\omega_q = 12THz$, $(\nabla T)_0^{g} = 0.37Km^{-1}$. The calculation was done in the regime at $ql >> 1$. The dependence of the normalized ($\Gamma/\Gamma_0$) on the frequency $\omega_q$ and the temperature gradient $(\nabla T/T)$ are evaluated numerically and presented graphically. The calculated $(\nabla T)_0^{g}$ for Graphene is lower than that obtained for homogeneous semiconductors ($n-InSb$) $(\nabla T)_0^{hom} \approx 10^3Kcm^{-1}$, Superlattices $(\nabla T)_0^{SL} = 384Kcm^{-1}$, Cylindrical Quantum Wire $(\nabla T)_0^{cqw} \approx 10^2Kcm^{-1}$. This makes Graphene a much better material for thermoelectric phonon amplifier.Comment: 12 Pages, 6 figure

Online Drift Compensation for Chemical Sensors Using Estimation Theory

Sensor drift from slowly changing environmental conditions and other instabilities can greatly degrade a chemical sensor\u27s performance, resulting in poor identification and analyte quantification. In the present work, estimation theory (i.e., various forms of the Kalman filter) is used for online compensation of baseline drift in the response of chemical sensors. Two different cases, which depend on the knowledge of the characteristics of the sensor system, are studied. First, an unknown input is considered, which represents the practical case of analyte detection and quantification. Then, the more general case, in which the sensor parameters and the input are both unknown, is studied. The techniques are applied to simulated sensor data, for which the true baseline and response are known, and to actual liquid-phase SH-SAW sensor data measured during the detection of organophosphates. It is shown that the technique is capable of estimating the baseline signal and recovering the true sensor signal due only to the presence of the analyte. This is true even when the baseline drift changes rate or direction during the detection process or when the analyte is not completely flushed from the system

Time in Indian and West African Music

Time, as expressed in musical rhythm, has been the focus of numerous musicological studies. Cyclic time is said to be an important foundation of Indian and African music. This assertion forms the basis for the study. Having garnered enough information to justify this assertion, a comparison is made between the Indian t?la and the West African time line using primarily Widdess’s (1981) observations on the t?la and studies on African rhythmic organization. The comparison is also based on the premise that the t?la and the time line seem to have similar roles in the organization of music in the two cultures. Juxtaposing in particular the ?d?-t?la and the adowa time line, the paper examines concepts such as the sam vis-à-vis the regulative beat, and pulse organization into measures vis-à-vis a fixed time span. Although it is asserted that musical rhythm in both African and Indian music is predominantly additive, the author argues that, to a large extent, rhythmic patterns employed in strictly-timed African percussion/ensemble music are predominantly divisive, and that conceptually, certain features of the t?la and the time line appear to be similar, however, the musical contexts in which they function are clearly dissimilar. Keywords:  t?la, time line, ?d?-t?la, adowa, regulative beat, sam

Farmers\' knowledge and perceptions of insect pests of yam (Dioscorea spp.) and their indigenous control practices in northern Ghana

Farmers\' knowledge and perceptions of insect pests of yam were studied between July 2000 and October 2001 in the Northern Region of Ghana using structured interview (questionnaire) and diagnostic surveys. A survey of 130 farmers randomly selected from 10 yam-growing districts of the Northern Region showed a wide range of ages (20- 86 years, average 50.3 years). Over 80 per cent of the farmers were above 40 years of age with an average of 25.6 years of farming experience. Land holdings for these farmers were small, averaging 2.8 acres (range 0.5- 12 acres). Most farmers were illiterate, because 88 per cent had not received formal education. Farmers identified yam pests as one of the major production constraints. Pests mentioned by farmers as causing the most serious damage in the field and storage, and confirmed by diagnostic surveys, included scale insect, Aspidiella hartii Ckll; termite, Amitermes guineensis Sands; tuber beetle, Heteroligus meles Billb; mealybug, Planococcus spp.; leaf beetle, Crioceris livida Dalm; and millipede, Habrodesmus sp. Despite the high level of pest awareness, most farmers (97%) did not practice any type of pest control because they lacked appropriate control methods. Only 3 per cent of them reported that they had used traditional methods of control such as wood ash, cow dung and aqueous extract of dawadawa, Parkia biglobosa (Jacq) Benth, pod or fruit. It is important to improve farmers\' pest management abilities by providing them with field diagnostic tools and educational materials through farmer field school. This will help them to acquire basic knowledge of pest identification and key concepts of pest control to enable them to become independent decision-makers.Des études étaient entreprises entre le Juillet 2000 et l\'Octobre 2001 sur la connaissance et les perspicacités d\'agriculteurs d\'insectes ravageurs d\'igname dans la région du nord du Ghana adoptant les interrogations structurées (le questionnaire) et les enquêtes diagnostiques. Une enquête de 130 agriculteurs choisis au hasard de dix districts producteurs d\'igname de la région du nord révélait de grande envergure des âges (20-86 ans, moyen 50.3 ans). Plus de 80% d\'agriculteurs avaient de plus de 40 ans d\'âge ayant une moyenne de 25.6 ans d\'expérience agricole. Les possessions de terrain pour ces agriculteurs sont petites, atteignant la moyenne de 2.8 acres (variation 0.5 - 12 acres). La plupart d\'agriculteurs sont analphabètes, comme 88% n\'ont pas suivi de cours formels. Les agriculteurs identifiaient les ravageurs d\'igname comme l\'un de contraintes principales de production. Les ravageurs mentionnés par les agriculteurs comme causant les dégâts les plus sérieux aux cultures aux champs et en stockage et confirmé par l\'enquête diagnostique comprennent: le coccidé, Aspidiella hartii Ckll; le termite, Amitermes guineensis Sands; le coléoptère, Heteroligus meles Billb; l\'aleurode, Planococcus spp.; le coléoptère de feuilles, Crioceris livida Dalm; et le mille-pattes, Habrodesmus sp. Malgré la prise de conscience élevée de ravageurs, la majorité d\'agriculteur (97%) ne pratiquent pas aucun type de maîtrise de ravageur parce qu\'ils manquent les méthodes de maîtrise appropriées. Seulement 3% d\'entre eux signalaient l\'application de méthodes traditionnelles de maîtrise telles que la cendre de bois, le fumier de vache, et l\'extrait aqueux de la cosse, ou du fruit de dawadawa Parkia biglobosa (Jacq) Benth. Il est important d\'améliorer la capacité de l\'agriculteur de lutter contre les ravageurs par la fourniture des outils de diagnostic sur le terrain, et les matériels de vulgarisation à travers l\'école d\'agriculteur sur le terrain. Ceci peut les aider à acquérir la connaissance de base d\'identification de ravageur, les notions fondamentales de la lutte contre les ravageurs, pour leur permettre de devenir des décideurs originaux. Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science Vol. 40 (2) 2008: pp. 185-19

The quality of locally-manufactured cornmill grinding plates

Maize was milled either ‘wet’ or ‘‘dry’’ using locally-manufactured milling plates. Samples of milled maize were taken and analyzed for elemental iron (Fe). Results show that iron particles from milling plates contaminates the milled maize and that the level of contamination increases with the quantity of milled maize. This is the case in both ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ milling. However, the relationship between the mass of elemental iron (Fe) in milled maize and mass of milled maize in ‘wet’ milling differed from that of ‘dry’ milling. That is, in ‘dry’ milling the rate of metal loss decreases at first and then increases with mass of milled maize, whereas in ‘wet’ milling, the rate increases monotonically with mass of milled maize. The difference could be explained in terms of the mechanism(s) or mode(s) of metal loss under the different milling conditions. In ‘dry’ milling, loss of metal is initially controlled by friction wear and later by erosion-corrosion. In the case of ‘wet’ milling metal loss could be attributed to conjoint action of corrosion and friction wear. The implications of these results are briefly discussed in terms of the possible health effects on consumers of foods prepared from such contaminated milled maize

Biosand Filtration as a Green Approach to Septic Tank Effluent Management in a Tertiary Institution in Ghana

Sewage and household effluents at some institutions in Ghana have been discharged into the ocean for years. Thisdegrades environmental media and is detrimental to ecological systems. The Three Local Plastic Barrel-Biosand Filter (TLPB-BSF) is an innovation on the slow sand filter that has been used to prevent discharge of raw sewage into the environment. The study aimed to test the performance of a modified BSF on sewage tank effluent and assess suitability of the filtrate for non-drinking purposes at a tertiary institution renamed KOTU to maintain confidentiality. Method: A filtration system made of three modified interconnected BSF was constructed on-site, with last filter connected to a storage tank. The modification was the provision of an additional media (charcoal) in the second barrel. Two sample collections were made from the system one week apart. The pre-filtrate samples were raw septic tank effluent (STE) and the samples obtained after running system was Biosand filter effluent (BSFE). Samples were analysed for physical and microbiological parameters at designated laboratories. Measured values of the parameters in pre-filtrate and filtrate samples were compared with EPA (Ghana) reference values. The removal efficiency of a parameter was computed as the difference between pre-filtrate and filtrate values expressed as a percentage of the pre-filtrate value. Results: Most of the effluent parameters from the BSF were within the EPA standards, while others were unacceptable. Removal efficiencies obtained for the parameters were: Ni trogen (83.3%), Phosphorus (89.5%), Total Suspended Solids (71.3%), Total Dissolved Solids (66.2%), Total coliform (99.9%), Faecal coliform (99.7%) and E. coli (97.6%). Conclusion: BSF is effective for upgrading physical and microbial quality of sewage at household and institutional level, prior to discharge in the environment. It produced a filtrate that met most of EPA standards for irrigation of non-edible crops

Field measurements and statistical analysis of perforated grating surfaces for grating fresh cassava into mash in Ghana

Processing of cassava into mash requires grating of fresh cassava tubers through the abrasive action of the grating surfaces of cassava graters that grind against the cassava and transforms it into mash. Over the years, improved cassava graters have been designed and made available on the market. In spite of improvements in design, there are no standards for the manufacture of grating surfaces and this affects interchangeability of the product. Mechanised grating of fresh cassava into mash contributes to reduce postharvest losses of cassava, increase its shelf life and improve food security. However, majority of the cassava grating surfaces are poorly made with substandard measurements that affect the desired particle size of mash for gari, a staple food for millions of people in West Africa. This study assessed cassava grating surfaces focusing on the abrasive elements (tooth diameter and inter-tooth spacing). Qualitative data were gathered from local metal fabricators and female gari processors in separate focus group discussions. The purpose was to gather the narratives underlying the issues being studied so as to complement and enrich the quantitative data. 112 tooth diameters and 112 inter-tooth spacing of perforated cassava grating surfaces were randomly measured in 16 different study areas in 3 regions of Ghana, namely Western, Central and Ashanti. Results from the qualitative data showed that grating of cassava was done repeatedly (about 2-3 times) before reaching the desired particle size of mash for gari. Most customers desire grating surfaces that ensure effective contact between the cassava and the metal grating surface to reduce grating time. Results from the field measurements showed high variation in existing tooth diameters (min=1.80, max=4.50 mm) and inter-tooth spacings (min=3.50, max=12.00 mm) that resulted in non-uniform particle size of cassava mash. Using statistical analysis, tooth diameters (min=3.18, max=3.42mm) and inter-tooth spacings (min=7.12, max=7.78mm) were determined at 95% confidence interval. For practical purposes, tooth diameter of 3 mm and inter-tooth spacing of 8 mm are recommended. The availability of such data will contribute significantly to standardise perforated cassava grating surfaces to achieve product interchangeability and desired quality of grated mash for gari. This will contribute to improve the manufacture of cassava graters and sustainable gari processing business in Ghana and Africa.Keywords: Fresh cassava, cassava grating surface, gari, food quality, Ghan