Investigating ICTs for Education in Marginalized Communities

The Agenda for Sustainable Development is a universal agenda to eliminate poverty through sustainable development by 2030. When it was adopted in 2015, the international community recognized that education was essential for the success of all seventeen of its goals. Ambitions for education are captured in Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The United Nations has explicitly stated the importance of using ICTs in achieving educational opportunities. Since then, very few studies have tackled the issue. The findings so far, do not provide detailed guidance on the impact of ICTs in this domain. The purpose of this study is to contribute to this gap by integrating research in the fields of Information Systems, Development studies, and Psychology to understand the factors for facilitating educational objectives through ICTs within marginalized communities

APS η\eta-invariant, path integrals, and mock modularity

We show that the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer $\eta$-invariant can be related to the temperature dependent Witten index of a noncompact theory and give a new proof of the APS theorem using scattering theory. We relate the $\eta$-invariant to a Callias index and compute it using localization of a supersymmetric path integral. We show that the $\eta$-invariant for the elliptic genus of a finite cigar is related to quantum modular forms obtained from the completion of a mock Jacobi form which we compute from the noncompact path integral.Comment: 44 pages, 5 figue

Oculomotor Task-Switching Performance Improves and Persists Following a Single Bout of Aerobic Exercise

Executive function includes the core components of response inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Interestingly, an accumulating evidence has reported that inhibitory control and working memory improve following a single bout of exercise. It is, however, largely unclear whether cognitive flexibility elicits a similar post-exercise benefit. Accordingly, Chapter Two of my thesis examined whether 20-min of aerobic exercise provides an immediate post-exercise ‘boost’ to cognitive flexibility. Chapter Three examined for how long a putative post-exercise benefit persists. Cognitive flexibility was examined via an AABB task-switching paradigm wherein participants alternated between a well-practiced and a novel oculomotor task pre- and post-exercise. Chapter Two showed an immediate post-exercise benefit to cognitive flexibility and Chapter Three demonstrated that the benefit persists for up to 47-min post exercise. As such, my thesis provides convergent evidence that a single bout of exercise benefits each core component of executive function

Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis dissertation examines the nature and consequences of gendered time poverty in northern Mozambique. Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa indicates that women are more likely to be time poor than men as they bear the double burden of productive and reproductive work in the household. This gender division of labor, dictated by social norms, constrains women's freedom, agency, and well-being. Based on fieldwork in the Nampula province of Mozambique in 2013 this dissertation examines gender differences in time poverty through both Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) set of indexes and a measure of work intensity. The analysis shows that women are both more time poor compared to men and they are more likely to experience high levels of work intensity. The investigation of the determinants of time poverty shows that women's access to economic resources, notably education and assets including land, has no bearing on women's time poverty, and gender is the main determinant of time poverty. Given women's critical role in food production and provisioning, the dissertation examines the consequences of unequal gender roles and time poverty of women for household food security and nutrition outcomes. Analysis focuses on the likely adverse effects of unforeseen events, such as illness in the family, on food security of smallholder farming households. The theoretical model and simulations of the model show that an unexpected crisis increases the demand for labor provided by the woman to which most women respond by reducing their work hours on the farm and by reducing their leisure time. The latter outcome results in deterioration of the woman's labor productivity. Overall, the household suffers a loss in farm production, which is the main source of household's food consumption. The dissertation contributes both new evidence on gendered time poverty and its consequences and a gendered model of the agricultural household that integrates role of social norms. The findings suggest that the efforts to increase agricultural productivity need not focus exclusively on agricultural aspects. The policy emphasis on reduction of women's unpaid workload in the short run along with a target to create redistribution of reproductive work in the long run would yield considerable benefits for agricultural sector

Visualizing Google Scholar Profile of Dr. S.R. Ranganathan using PoP and VOSviewer: a tribute to Father of Library Science in India

Dr. Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan was the well-known librarian and mathematician from India. He was also called the father of Indian librarianship. He made India library conscious in particular and he influenced the thinking of library world in general. It is mainly because of his efforts that library & information science became a subject of study and research. Dr S.R. Ranganathan has recorded 307 publications since 1931 including his contributed books, book chapters, reports, and journal articles, texts of invited speeches or special lecture. He received a total of 5455 citations with h-index 27. Highest citations (306) were received in the year 2017. Also, it was observed, “The Five Laws of Library Science” published in the year 1931 received highest citation 1213. Most of his collaborative works or articles in total, are with Neelameghan, A and Gopinath, M A