We the People: American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States

This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs (outside tribal areas) at the national level.1 It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000

Seneca on slavery: An African perspective

Slavery is one of the humanistic concepts bothering the human society. Slavery can be seen as a state in which ones life and affairs are controlled by another; hence the slave is seen as a lesser being. The African society is dialectic in structure, thus there is the existence of the opposites; master (free born) and slaves. The interest of this paper is on the basic ideas of Seneca on slavery. He wrote based on the inhuman treatment meted on slaves who are humans too and therefore advocates for the abolishment of slavery, otherwise they should be treated as persons,with voluntas and ratio. When there is mutual relationship and respect between humans, there would be enhancement of values, peace and development in the society

Distinguishing between recent balancing selection and incomplete sweep using deep neural networks

Balancing selection is an important adaptive mechanism underpinning a wide range of phenotypes. Despite its relevance, the detection of recent balancing selection from genomic data is challenging as its signatures are qualitatively similar to those left by ongoing positive selection. In this study, we developed and implemented two deep neural networks and tested their performance to predict loci under recent selection, either due to balancing selection or incomplete sweep, from population genomic data. Specifically, we generated forward-in-time simulations to train and test an artificial neural network (ANN) and a convolutional neural network (CNN). ANN received as input multiple summary statistics calculated on the locus of interest, while CNN was applied directly on the matrix of haplotypes. We found that both architectures have high accuracy to identify loci under recent selection. CNN generally outperformed ANN to distinguish between signals of balancing selection and incomplete sweep and was less affected by incorrect training data. We deployed both trained networks on neutral genomic regions in European populations and demonstrated a lower false-positive rate for CNN than ANN. We finally deployed CNN within the MEFV gene region and identified several common variants predicted to be under incomplete sweep in a European population. Notably, two of these variants are functional changes and could modulate susceptibility to familial Mediterranean fever, possibly as a consequence of past adaptation to pathogens. In conclusion, deep neural networks were able to characterize signals of selection on intermediate frequency variants, an analysis currently inaccessible by commonly used strategies

Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Practices: An Empirical study of Nigerian Listed Firms

This paper investigated determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure practices of listed firms in Nigeria. Data covering the period of 2010-2017 was collected from the annual report and account of Sixteen (16) listed firms on Nigerian stock exchange market. Ordinary least Square Panel regression estimator was employed owing to the cross sectional and time series nature of the data. The result showed that board independence, financial leverage and age were positively related to corporate social responsibility disclosure while profitability was found to exhibit a negative relationship with corporate social responsibility disclosure. It was however revealed that approximately 40% of the variations in the dependent variable of CSR disclosure was explained by the explanatory variables and jointly tested all the variables had a significant effect on the dependent variable as revealed by the F-statistic of 14.44 significant at 5%. This study extends the scope of previous studies by including corporate governance   variables of: board independence and board size which are issues of current contention. The paper contributes to the understanding of determinants of CSR disclosure practices and offers findings which are useful for both theory and practice

Determinants of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Practices: An Empirical study of Nigerian Listed Firms

This paper investigated determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure practices of listed firms in Nigeria. Data covering the period of 2010-2017 was collected from the annual report and account of Sixteen (16) listed firms on Nigerian stock exchange market. Ordinary least Square Panel regression estimator was employed owing to the cross sectional and time series nature of the data. The result showed that board independence, financial leverage and age were positively related to corporate social responsibility disclosure while profitability was found to exhibit a negative relationship with corporate social responsibility disclosure. It was however revealed that approximately 40% of the variations in the dependent variable of CSR disclosure was explained by the explanatory variables and jointly tested all the variables had a significant effect on the dependent variable as revealed by the F-statistic of 14.44 significant at 5%. This study extends the scope of previous studies by including corporate governance   variables of: board independence and board size which are issues of current contention. The paper contributes to the understanding of determinants of CSR disclosure practices and offers findings which are useful for both theory and practice

EXPLORING THE BENEFITS OF ACTIVITY-BASED LEARNING IN ENHANCING COGNITIVE SKILLS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS IN SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

Improving the quality of Science and Technology education requires effective teaching techniques, which largely depend on the development of teachers' pedagogical skills. This study examines how the application of the Activity-Based Learning (ABL) approach influences Secondary School Science and Technology students' cognitive learning abilities. These skills are examined based on Bloom's Taxonomy, and are evaluated by their teachers. The study also investigated the teachers' ability to effectively apply the ABL approach after receiving training. The study formulated two research questions and a hypothesis; and focused on Basic Science and Technology (BST) students in three districts of the State of Akwa Ibom in South-South Nigeria. The fifty-six teachers who taught these students were trained in the ABL approach, and 308 students of 20 teachers were randomly selected to form the sample for the study. The teachers completed the "Basic Science and Technology Teachers Activity-Based Learning Evaluation Scale” (BSTTABLES) which elicited their response to items on their ability to apply the ABL approach and their evaluation of their students' cognitive learning ability as they apply the ABL approach in teaching BST subjects. Analysis of the data generated revealed that the teachers were highly able to apply the ABL approach and the students responded favorably to it, although their scarcity of resources for class activities. According to the teachers’ evaluation, their students improved in the cognitive learning outcomes of Recall, Comprehension, and Application, which were high when ABL was applied. While there was only slight improvement in the higher-order cognitive skills. The study concludes that the application of ABL leads to significant enhancement in the cognitive learning outcomes of BST students. It recommends continuous training, retraining and support of teachers to ensure the effective application of the ABL approach.  Article visualizations

Measurements and calibration of the stripline BPM for the ELI-NP facility with the stretched wire method

A methodology has been developed to perform electrical characterization of the stripline BPMs for the future Gamma Beam System of ELI Nuclear Physics facility in Romania. Several prototype units are extensively benchmarked and the results are presented in this paper. The BPM sensitivity function is determined using a uniquely designed motorized test bench with a stretched wire to measure the BPM response map. Here, the BPM feedthroughs are connected to Libera Brilliance electronics and the wire is fed by continuous wave signal, while the two software-controlled motors provide horizontal and vertical motion of the BPM around the wire. The electrical offset is obtained using S-parameter measurements with a Network Analyzer (via the “Lambertson” method) and is referenced to the mechanical offse

Analgesic effects of alcohol: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled experimental studies in healthy participants

Despite the long-standing belief in the analgesic properties of alcohol, experimental studies have produced mixed results. This meta-analysis aimed to clarify whether alcohol produces a decrease in experimentally-induced pain and to determine the magnitude of any such effect. PubMed, PsycINFO and Embase databases were searched from inception until 21/4/2016 for controlled studies examining the effect of quantified dosages of alcohol on pain response to noxious stimulation. Eighteen studies involving 404 participants were identified providing alcohol vs. no-alcohol comparisons for 13 tests of pain threshold (N=212) and 9 tests of pain intensity ratings (N=192). Random effects meta- analysis of standardized mean differences (SMD) provided robust support for analgesic effects of alcohol. A mean blood alcohol content (BAC) of approximately 0.08% (3-4 standard drinks) produced a small elevation of pain threshold (SMD=0.35[0.17, 0.54], p=.002), and a moderate-large reduction in pain intensity ratings, (SMD=0.64[0.37, 0.91], p<.0001), or equivalently, a mean reduction of 1.25 points on a 0-10 point pain rating scale. Furthermore, increasing BAC resulted in increasing analgesia, with each .02% BAC increment producing an increase of SMD=.11 for pain threshold and SMD=.20 for reduced pain intensity. Some evidence of publication bias emerged, but statistical correction methods suggested minimal impact on effect size. Taken together, findings suggest that alcohol is an effective analgesic that delivers clinically- relevant reductions in ratings of pain intensity, which could explain alcohol misuse in those with persistent pain despite its potential consequences for long- term health. Further research is needed to corroborate these findings for clinical pain states

Ultrasound IMT measurement on a multi-ethnic and multi-institutional database: Our review and experience using four fully automated and one semi-automated methods

Automated and high performance carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) measurement is gaining increasing importance in clinical practice to assess the cardiovascular risk of patients. In this paper, we compare four fully automated IMT measurement techniques (CALEX, CAMES, CARES and CAUDLES) and one semi-automated technique (FOAM). We present our experience using these algorithms, whose lumen-intima and media-adventitia border estimation use different methods that can be: (a) edge-based; (b) training-based; (c) feature-based; or (d) directional Edge-Flow based. Our database (DB) consisted of 665 images that represented a multi-ethnic group and was acquired using four OEM scanners. The performance evaluation protocol adopted error measures, reproducibility measures, and Figure of Merit (FoM). FOAM showed the best performance, with an IMT bias equal to 0.025 ± 0.225 mm, and a FoM equal to 96.6%. Among the four automated methods, CARES showed the best results with a bias of 0.032 ± 0.279 mm, and a FoM to 95.6%, which was statistically comparable to that of FOAM performance in terms of accuracy and reproducibility. This is the first time that completely automated and user-driven techniques have been compared on a multi-ethnic dataset, acquired using multiple original equipment manufacturer (OEM) machines with different gain settings, representing normal and pathologic case