Unit-segment Analysis: A Space Syntax Approach to Capturing Vehicular Travel Behavior Emulating Configurational Properties of Roadway Structures

One of the critical concerns of axial analysis, a space syntax approach to capturing vehicular travel behavior emulating configurational properties of roadway structures, is the absence of the time-cost consideration while dealing with route-choice problems encountered in grid-like urban textures. This study shows that the time-cost parameter of travel can also be introduced into the syntax approach to capturing the route-choice decisions for the purpose of modeling vehicular movement networks with greater accuracy. Assuming that roadway units are trip-origins and trip-destinations and that they also act as connecting route segments among each other, a theoretical foundation has been proposed showing how the mobility characteristics of these units, in terms of the time-cost of travel, influence their accessibility measures or syntax integrations. These new roadway units are the unit segments, and their integrations are found to be better indicators of vehicular trip-makers’ route-choice decisions than axial integrations. Conclusions suggest that the unit-segment analysis of an urban grid captures the general behavior of vehicular flow by substantiating the fact that trip-makers tend to pick a specific set of roadway units that not only comprise the close connection between a triporigin and a trip-destination but also consume less time for travel

Expanding Access and Increasing Student Learning in Post-Primary Education in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence

Effective, evidence-based policies on post-primary education are of vital importance as many developing countries start to the see a bulge in secondary and postsecondary enrollment, the product of the achievement of near-universal access to primary school. Finding ways to deliver and promote access to high-quality post-primary education, and to ensure that education is relevant to labor market needs, is one of the great challenges of our times. This must be accomplished in countries where governments face severe budget constraints and many, of not most, parents are too poor to cover the costs out of pocket.International reports such as "A Global Compact on Learning", by the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution, emphasize providing opportunities for post-primary education as a first-tier policy challenge. In addition, there has been considerably less progress in gender parity at the secondary level. Meeting these challenges will require a combination of using existing resources more effectively -- which requires both understanding which inputs are key and which are not -- and a range of innovations that may fundamentally alter the current methods of instruction. To that end, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) has launched a Post-Primary Education Initiative intended to promote policy-relevant research on secondary and post-secondary education in developing countries, which together will be referred to as post-primary education. This paper is a first step in that process. It reviews the evidence to date on post-primary education and highlight the gaps in the literature, with a focus on identifying policies that should be given the highest priority for future researchDifferent countries define primary and secondary schooling differently, and in many countries students attend middle schools, upper primary schools, or junior secondary schools before attending secondary school. For the purpose of this review, "post-primary education" includes everything from upper primary, middle, or junior secondary school through tertiary education, as defined by the local context in different countries, including vocational school and other alternative tracks for this age group. In practice, this means that in the research reviewed, the majority of children are in 5th grade (i.e. 10-11 years old) and older.The review is organized as follows. Section II provides some background on postprimary education in the developing world. Section III explains how papers were selected for this review. Section IV presents a conceptual framework for thinking about postprimary education (PPE), including a brief discussion of measuring outcomes. Section V reviews the evidence pertaining to the demand for schooling (the impact of policies that attempt to increase the willingness of households to send their children to school), and Section VI reviews the evidence on the supply of schooling (the impact of policies that change school and teacher characteristics, and more generally how schools are organized). A final section summarizes the findings, highlighting several research gaps that should receive high priority in future research

Exploring Diverse Coping Mechanisms in 2023: A Comprehensive Survey Across Backgrounds and Cultures

This study presents a pioneering investigation into the wide array of coping mechanisms employed by individuals in the year 2023, with a focus on data collected through the popular social media platform TikTok. Coping mechanisms are essential strategies that people adopt to navigate the challenges and stressors of everyday life, yet little research has been conducted on their comprehensive compilation across different backgrounds, countries, and experiences. Using TikTok as a data collection tool allowed us to access a diverse and extensive pool of participants, representing various cultural, social, and demographic backgrounds. Our study collates coping mechanisms reported by users from different parts of the world, facilitating the identification of both universal and culture-specific strategies. This research contributes to the existing literature by providing a holistic view of coping mechanisms without being limited to specific fields or populations. By analyzing the coping methods shared on TikTok, we reveal a comprehensive list of strategies employed by people from diverse walks of life. The findings of this study not only shed light on how individuals cope with challenges in the modern era but also offer insights into the evolving coping trends and the role of social media in disseminating coping strategies. Understanding these coping mechanisms can have implications for mental health professionals, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to provide support and resources to individuals facing different stressors and hardships

Multi-criteria Contractor Selection Framework for Indian Construction Projects

In this paper contractor selection practice in India has been analyzed in detail to find out the gaps in the prevailing system & also compared with the selection systems outside India. This study aims to develop a multi-criteria contractor selection framework that can incorporate multiple evaluation criteria along with the relative weightage. In this study, it has been identified that in India, as per the guidelines the contractor selection in the case of most popular Design Bid Build (DBB) projects is done based on Least Cost Selection (LCS) only. In LCS, the final selection is based on cost or bid price only. In some cases, Quality & Cost Based Selection (QCBS) is applied for contractor selection. However, QCBS is mainly used for consultant selection or selection of service providers. On the other hand, in many other counties, there are systems that follow multiple criteria for contractor selection to ensure the overall performance of the contractor. Hence, in India, there is a need for a structured, multi-criteria contractor selection system. The system should cater to the objective of contractor selection in the case of DBB projects & also should be responsive to the present need for selection based on multiple criteria

Cosmic inflation and (g−2)μ(g-2)_\mu in minimal gauged Lμ−LτL_\mu-L_\tau model

The minimal $U(1)_{L_\mu-L_\tau}$ gauge symmetry extended Standard Model (SM) is a well motivated framework that resolves the discrepancy between the theoretical prediction and experimental observation of muon anomalous magnetic moment. We envisage the possibility of identifying the beyond Standard Model Higgs of $U(1)_{L_\mu-L_\tau}$ sector, non-minimally coupled to gravity, as the inflaton in the early universe, while being consistent with the $(g-2)_\mu$ data. Although the structure seems to be trivial, we observe that taking into consideration of a complete cosmological history starting from inflation through the reheating phase to late-time epoch along with existing constraints on $U(1)_{L_\mu-L_\tau}$ model parameters leave us a small window of allowed reheating temperature. This further results into restriction of $(n_s-r)$ plane which is far severe than the one in a generic non-minimal quartic inflationary set up.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Polymer functionalized single-walled carbon nanotube composites and semi-fluorinated quaternary ammonium polymer colloids and coatings

Scope and Method of Study: Current study focused on understanding of "wetting" and "dewetting" phenomena between surfaces of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) which are lightly grafted with polymer chains by reversible-deactivation radical polymerization, when they are mixed with matrix chains of the same architecture as grafts. Effects of grafts to matrix chain lengths on SWCNT dispersion in matrix polymers were studied by measuring electrical conductivity, glass transition temperature, and storage and loss moduli of nanocomposites. Another area of work was to design semi-fluorinated copolymers with core-shell morphology by emulsion polymerization, study their catalytic activities for hydrolyses of Paraoxon, a toxic insecticide, in the forms of both colloidal dispersions and films, and to characterize the surfaces of the films by atomic force microscopy and by dynamic contact angle measurements.Findings and Conclusions: The glass transition temperature (Tg) of polystyrene (PS) filled with SWCNT grafted with PS of different lengths increased from 99 to 109 °C at 6 wt% of SWCNT followed by a plateau. The heat capacity ((∆Cp) at Tg continued to decrease only for the smallest chain length grafted PS nanocomposites. SWCNT/PS nanocomposites had low electrical conductivity and showed no percolation threshold due to the thick polymer coatings. A key finding was that the SWCNT surface can accommodate only a fixed numbers of styrene units. Similar results on change in Tg were obtained for SWCNT/PMMA nanocomposites when molecular weight of matrix (Mmatrix) ≥ molecular weight of grafts (Mgraft). No change in (∆Cp was observed for SWCNT/PMMA nanocomposites. "Wetting" to "dewetting" occurred Mmatrix/Mgraft ≈ 1. For Mmatrix > Mgraft, electrical conductivity of nanocomposites reached the value of 10-9 S cm-1 at 1.0 wt% nanotube loading and had percolation threshold of electrical conductivity at ~0.25 wt% SWCNT. Raman and UV-vis-NIR data confirmed that grafting methods have little effect on inherent electronic properties of SWCNT. A key observation was that the behavior of polymer-SWCNT composites is analogous to polymer thin films containing two different lengths of chemically same polymers. On the other hand, semifluorinated copolymers had hydrophobic and lipophilic properties similar to homopolymers of poly(perfluoroalkyl methacrylates), but were not active in detoxification of Paraoxon. Therefore, semi-fluorinated latexes can either act as phase transfer catalysts for hydrolysis of organophosporous compounds or repel the compound, but cannot do both

A Post-Processing Based Bengali Document Layout Analysis with YOLOV8

This paper focuses on enhancing Bengali Document Layout Analysis (DLA) using the YOLOv8 model and innovative post-processing techniques. We tackle challenges unique to the complex Bengali script by employing data augmentation for model robustness. After meticulous validation set evaluation, we fine-tune our approach on the complete dataset, leading to a two-stage prediction strategy for accurate element segmentation. Our ensemble model, combined with post-processing, outperforms individual base architectures, addressing issues identified in the BaDLAD dataset. By leveraging this approach, we aim to advance Bengali document analysis, contributing to improved OCR and document comprehension and BaDLAD serves as a foundational resource for this endeavor, aiding future research in the field. Furthermore, our experiments provided key insights to incorporate new strategies into the established solution