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Gender Differences In Health Habits And Psychological Well- Being Among Early Adults
The concept of health is both complex and important. Health and its importance is one of the universally recognized concepts. The aim of the study was to explore the gender differences among early adults with regard to their health habits and their psychological well-being. Total sample consisted of 100 participants of whom 50 were men and 50 were women. The sampling technique used was random sampling. The age range was 18 -25 years. Health promoting lifestyle profile (HPLP), developed by Walker, Sechrist & Pender (1982). It includes both health-protecting (preventive) behaviors that decrease risk for illness and health-promoting behaviors that sustain or increase well-being, self-actualization and personal fulfillment. Health Behavior checklist was developed by the researcher to understand the patterns of health behavior on the dimensions of nutrition, physical activity, medical care, alcohol consumption, smoking and dieting and PGI General well Being Measure (PGI GWBM) Psychological well-being- PGI GWBM (English Version) by S.K Verma and A.Verma was used to assess the psychological wellbeing of early adults. This is a twenty item simplified test to measure positive mental health. Results showed that there are no gender differences in health habits among early adults. There were gender differences in psychological well-being among early adults. Correlation between health habits and psychological well-being was not observed. The results from the analysis of the checklist indicate some differences between men and women; more men were involved in external physical activity than women and women seemed to be not worried about their health and not visiting hospitals for checkups than men. Key words: gender differences, health habits, psychological well-being. -
Gender Differences: Perception of Teasing and Body Image among Young Adults
The main focus of the current research is to determine whether perception of teasing has an influence on an individuals body image. Teasing related to weight may occur more often than many other types of teasing during childhood and adolescence. The study was conducted with a sample 100 under graduate students. The participants were in the age group of 18 to 21 years. The data was collected using teasing questionnaire-revised by Storch et al. (2004) and body image questionnaire by Cash (1994). 10 participants who scored high on teasing questionnaire were interviewed to further explore their teasing experiences and its relation to their body image. The results showed that there are no gender differences between teasing and body image among adults. Teasing seemed to be related to some of the domains of body image. Data from interviews show that peers and family were the major group of people involved in teasing. Teasing seemed to be having many consequences for the individuals results also indicate that teasing on ones appearance influences their body image. Key Words: Gender Difference, Teasing, Body Image and young adults. -
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GRAFFITI AS AN ART FORM USED IN MUSIC VIDEOS OF THE BAND COLDPLAY
The study is based on the analysis of the content of two videos in the popular British band - Coldplay. The two songs taken into account are ??Every Teardrop is a Waterfall and ??Hurts like Heaven. The visual content in these songs involves a lot of graffiti art which complement the wordings of the song and go along with the beats of the music. To gain more knowledge on the visual element used in videos and find out the reason for the use of the elements in these videos, to come to a conclusion which explains the audio and video of the song by the band and also to understand how it enhances the feel of the song in a better way, the researcher goes into detail and explains the significance and use of the elements (visuals, lyrics) in the songs ??Every Teardrop is a Waterfall and ??Hurts like Heaven by Coldplay with the aid of the required research methods. The method used to study Graffiti as an art form used in music videos of the popular band Coldplay is Qualitative method which helps in getting a detailed conclusion. The researcher adopts an in-depth analysis of the songs and their visual content (graffiti art). The study is validated with the help of experts opinions through interviews and secondary data like books, journals and online material. After the analysis of the music videos with the help of expert opinions, it is interpreted to come to specific findings. Use of journals, books and online material provide facts about the origin and development of the types of music, graffiti art and visuals. This leads to a better understanding of concepts involved in the study and bring in more credibility. -
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Growth and Characterization of Indium Monotelluride Crystals
Semiconductors have become an inevitable part of human life. The beginning of the modern electronic technology goes back to the invention and elaboration of the semiconductor-based transistor by Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley in 1948. Thereafter, electronics industry has grown and become one of the worlds largest commercial establishments. The increasing demands for smaller electronic devices with improved performance at lower costs drive the conventional silicon-based technology to its limits. To satisfy the requirements from the industry and to extend the applications of semiconductor devices, new materials and fabrication techniques have to be used. The development, specification and quality control of these materials often require a very delicate crystal growth process and specific characterizations, which will be critical to a successful design of an electronic device. The knowledge of structural, electrical and mechanical properties of materials is essential for making use of them in various electronic devices. The operating abilities of a large part of modern technological hardware are based on active and/or passive crystalline core pieces. The fabrication of such crystals is normally connected with the well established growth methods such as Bridgman, Czochralski, Verneuil, zone melting, top seeded solution growth (TSSG), re-crystallization techniques, etc. Bulk crystal growth techniques are used to grow large crystals from which substrates are sliced. Substrate availability is a critical component in the success of a technology. Hence, even in this era of thin films and epitaxial layers, bulk crystal growth from melt still upholds its significance and plays an important role in the development of semiconductor-based technologies. Solar cell technology, as a sustainable source of energy, has shown a tremendous growth in recent years. The most widely used commercial solar cells are made from single crystalline silicon and have efficiencies up to 26.5%. However, such single crystalline solar cells are relatively expensive with the silicon itself making up to 20-40% of the final cost. In the search for low-cost alternatives to crystalline silicon, a great deal of work is being carried out in tailoring the applicability of compound semiconductor materials, which offer advantages over silicon. Indium monotelluride (InTe) is a III-VI layered semiconductor, which is particularly suitable for photovoltaic use, because of its suitable band gap (1.16 eV), optical and transport properties. In addition, its cleaved surfaces do not need any additional treatment for p??n junction formation and are chemically inert under ambient conditions. The crystal structure of InTe is tetragonal with lattice parameters, a = b = 8.454 ??, and c = 7.152 ??. The direct nature of transition supports the maximum efficiency of the InTe based opto-electronic devices. Indium monotelluride (InTe) crystals have been crystallized using directional freezing technique by employing a two zone horizontal furnace. The compound charge used for the growth was synthesised from its constituent elements (In and Te). The structural and chemical investigations of the grown samples were performed using powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and energy dispersive analysis by x-rays (EDAX). The dielectric constant, loss factor, AC conductivity and optical band gap of the grown InTe crystals were estimated from the capacitance measurements in the temperature range, 35-140??C. The frequency dependence of these dielectric parameters has been studied to understand the mechanism behind conduction. The mechanical strength of the cleaved samples of indium monotelluride was investigated using Vickers microhardness tester in the load range, 5-50 g, and the results obtained are discussed. The present research work titled ??Growth and characterization of indium monotelluride crystals has been organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction about the concepts of nucleation with regard to the crystal growth of semiconducting materials. The effects of thermodynamical parameters on the growth of crystals are explained. The theories of crystal growth along with the factors affecting the crystallization phenomenon are described in chapter 2. The principle behind the different crystal growth processes is outlined. An account on the various crystal growth techniques highlighting their special features is also given. A review of the present national / international status on the growth and characterization of InTe is presented. The description of directional freezing method, experimental procedure and the various characterization techniques used for the study are presented in chapter 3. Chapter 4 covers the results and discussions of the research findings. It ends with a reference section, wherein the literature reviews used are listed as per the international standards and the order of its appearance in the text. -
Health Expenditure in Puducherry (U.T) A Study using National Health Accounts Framework
With the start of globalization, the Indian economy started experiencing a sudden growth and with the boom of various sector in the economy, the employment opportunity, income as standard of living started increasing. With the increase standard of living, there is an increase in demand for health care services. Health care plays an important role in the lives of the people. With government being welfare oriented every year the investment in health care increases and the private contribution to the health care sector is increasing at a higher pace. This study aims: (1) To quantify the extent of household expenditure on health by household characteristics in Puducherry; (2) To track the flow of resources in Health sector from different sources and present them in the form of accounting principles and (3) To develop a matrice format which facilitates the user to understand the sources of finances and uses of such finances on different item of expenditure. A primary data survey was conducted to capture the picture of household expenditure and the National Health Account matrices framework as prescribed by WHO was used in developing the health accounts matrices. The finding shows that majority of the household expenditure is made in purchasing medicine and other goods from the retail sector. Bulk of the spending is made in curative services. The expenditure flows to retail sale of medicines and drugs seems to be the major provider of services to the community. Households are the prominent sources for spending on health care. Out of the household surveyed only 2 to 3 per cent of the population would opt for health insurance. The present expenditure pattern seems to be shying away from other crucial functional elements of health care like Primary health care, Prevention of diseases, Public health and Promotive care. The study also finds a need to increase the awareness of Health insurance among the public and the need for more investment in health infrastructure as well as training of health personnel. -
HINGLISH IS AN IMPORTANT ADVERTISEMENT APPEAL
Advertising has become very costly and time consuming and is an important marketing activity. A lot of time, energy and money is spent in developing a creative advertising appeals to influence the buying behaviour of consumers through various appeals, advertising influence, rationally or emotionally, the prospects purchase decisions. There are various types of appeals in advertisements. Appeals in both print and broadcast media keep changing according to the innovation and the product that keeps developing in the market. Language is also an important feature of advertisement ad advertisers have experimented a lot in terms of using language be it a particular language likes English or Hindi or au bilingual language. Hinglish is being used by mostly products focussing on youth and rural audience of India and who just does not want to restrict themselves to the elite of the society as the product is affordable. The study would examine the various Hinglish taglines of various different brands. The survey will be done to find out peoples perception about the language Hinglish as an important ad appeal. -
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Identifying the Existing Oral Proficiency Testing Patterns
The research aims to identify the different activities or patterns used for the teaching and testing of oral proficiency. Furthermore, the issues in the assessment of oral proficiency are also analyzed. The data was collected from the English teachers teaching in the selected Aided Kerala State Syllabus Schools in Trivandrum, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta districts from the grades 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th. The present study incorporated an exploratory research design based on a qualitative approach. The sample size consists of eleven teacher participants that were selected based on purposive sampling. The research study was divided into three phases. The phase 1, consists of open-ended questionnaire which were distributed to eleven teachers and the data obtained was categorized into different themes based on the responses from the teacher participants. Phase 2 consists of classroom observations of eleven teachers in which three teaching sessions per teacher and a total number of one thousand two hundred eighty-seven students were observed based on the classroom observation checklist. Moreover, phase 3 consists of interviews among the eleven teacher participants to gain further insights. The findings of the present research based on the analysis of the phase1, phase 2 and phase 3, indicates that the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach is an effective approach to enhance the oral proficiency of the students. Moreover, the teaching and the testing patterns implemented by the school teachers are considered effective as it enables them to teach and to assess the oral proficiency of the students in a systematic manner. The research findings based on the triangulation prove that the use of reading, role play and storytelling are found to be consistent across the three phases and are commonly used by the teachers to enhance the oral proficiency of the students in the English language viii classrooms. Moreover, in the triangulation of assessment of oral proficiency, it has been observed that the activities such as reading and role play are found to be consistent across the three phases and are commonly used by the teachers. Furthermore, regarding the issues in the assessment of oral proficiency, lack of time is considered as one of the issues that is consistent across the three phases. The overall analysis of this research indicates that there is a positive or a parallel impact between the CLT approach and Theory of Knowledge (TOK) on the development of the oral proficiency of the students. The researcher suggests that there should be a standardized assessment tool to test the oral proficiency of the students in order to ensure grading consistency among the test assessors in the Kerala State Syllabus Schools. -
Identity formation and construction of communities among the users of social networking sites
Study of social networking sites and formation of community within the social networking sites is a new topic. Emergence of social networking sites and its impact on the social life is therefore a recent phenomenon. The social networking sites are a common platform for users to come together on the basis of common interest, ideas and opinions. Its existence and relevance is justified by number of factors operating together, such as large user base, radical changes in the process of socialization and impact of social media on our everyday life etc. What makes social networking sites so interesting is the fact that it is user centric. The very foundation of social networking sites was laid to facilitate socialization among the users. India has one of the largest social network user bases especially for social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. This is even truer for urban centers such as Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. The use of social networking sites is so common among the youth that it almost seems as though if one is not part of social networking site one does not have any social life. Everything we have in real life gets replicated in the online communities, the good and the bad. Therefore, this study is an attempt to understand how the users are able to come together and form community in the cyberspace. The researcher also attempts to study the impact of the same in the real life and vice versa. Since the advent of social networking sites it has radically changed the way we socialize. This study also looks at how social networking sites and social network analysis emerged. Identity formation is yet another aspect of the study; online identities are very fluid as one has to type themselves into existence. Therefore, the identities people take online are varied and often may be completely different from the reality. This aspect of fluid identity has both positive and negative aspects as we will see later in the thesis. Social media technologies are woven into the very fabric of our social life. As mentioned above are the various aspects of the social networking sites that we are looking into. The dissertation is divided into five chapters, the first chapter introduces one to the topic, along with aims, objectives, need and background of the study, the second chapter consists of the reviewed literature, the third chapter deals with the methodological part of the dissertation as various tools and techniques used in the study are explained, while the fourth chapter is the analysis and interpretation of the primary data collected, it is presented using various bar diagrams and tables, and the fifth chapter brings out the important findings in the study and also in the conclusion chapter. The fifth chapter summarizes all the findings of the earlier chapters. Finally, the dissertation consists of the bibliography list and the questionnaire which was distributed to collect the data. -
Image Encryption and Compression using Embedding Technique
Encryption is used to securely transmit data in open networks. Each type of data has its own features; therefore different techniques should be used to protect confidential image data from unauthorized access. Most of the available encryption algorithms are mainly used for textual data and may not be suitable for multimedia data such as images. For secure transmission, various compression and encryption techniques are proposed to satisfy a fast and secure transmission. However these two techniques must be studied separately. In this paper we propose a method combining encryption and compression based on Embedding and Extracting and Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). For encryption, target images are covered with an insignificant image to hide them and it is transmitted to destination. The receiver reconstructs the original images by extracting the insignificant image. For compression process, using DCT the size of transmission can be reduced. Through several computer simulations, the performance of the proposed method is confirmed. -
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Impact of Life Skills Education on Self-Esteem among Adolescents in Childrens Home
The aim of the current study was to assess the impact of life skills education on self-esteem among adolescents in Childrens Home. The design was experimental and used a pre-test/ post-test design with a control group. Sixty adolescents (30 males and 30 females) from Childrens Home comprised the experimental group (N=30) and control group (N= 30) who were selected from Childrens Homes in Kannur district, Kerala. A life skills education programme was prepared and included sessions towards improving self-esteem among adolescents in the age group 13-15 years. The Rosenbergs Self-Esteem Scale (1965) was administered before and after the life skills education programme to the adolescents. The results indicate that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control group in their self-esteem after life skills education programme including gender differences. The implication of the study reiterates that the inclusion of life skills as part of the curriculum for adolescents residing in Childrens Home plays a role in enhancing self- esteem. Key Words: Self-Esteem, Adolescent, Childrens Home, Life Skills Education -
IMPACT OF MNP ON CONSUMER SWITCHING BEHAVIOUR WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS
Indian telecom market is one of the fastest growing markets and is forecasted to reach 9.2 million users by mid of 2012. India has seen rapid increase in the number of players which has caused the tariff rates to hit an all time low and with the introduction of MNP, the mobile users has an option of changing the service provider without changing the number. The availability of Mobile Number Portability to subscriber has intensified the competition among service providers in order to retain the existing customer base and to gain from other operators, which has led to attractive schemes or offers or packages to the end users. This shows satisfaction has become a major influence on switching behavior and only those mobile operators who satisfy the needs of the users at affordable cost can prevail. The study examines the impact of MNP on customer demographics in determining the switching behavior. The data gathered was through a survey and the sample size was 203. The variables considered for the study were customer demographics, satisfaction, tariff, customer care. Independent students t test and chi-square were used to analyze the data to examine the impact of switch propensity for each demographic variable. Research findings suggest that different groups have different switching behavior. Age, gender, marital status and brand have significant dependency on those who switch and there is significant difference on age with regard to VAS, network quality; education and monthly income on low international tariff; marital status on network quality. The study also reveals that call rates play the most important role in switching the service provider followed by network coverage and value added service respectively. It is found that there is a relation between switching the demographic variables. More number of young mobile users prefers mobile number portability. Airtel and Idea Cellular emerged as most preferred mobile service operators in terms of MNP. Both continue to gain customers from other service providers. As per the study BSNL was the biggest loser in terms of MNP. It was also observed that post paid customer prefer MNP over prepaid. Keywords ?? MNP, Prepaid, Postpaid, Switching Behavior, Demographics, VAS, Tariff. -
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IMPACT OF PHOTOGRAPHS AND ITS PLACEMENT IN NEWS ARTICLES ON READERS.
The research is carried out to study the impact of photographs and its placement on readers in newspapers. The photographs and headline are the heavyweights, more than any other element they attract attention. This study tries to focus on the role of photographs in newspaper articles on its readers. It evaluates on the terms of its placement as well. Photographs in newspapers are researched through semiotics analysis, content analysis and other qualitative techniques. This study is undertaken in both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The researcher has used the random sampling technique with a sample size of 108. The analysis is also made on the basis of in-depth interview with experienced and seasoned members of print organisations. Based on the analysis of the data collected the research has thrown light upon the findings that, before even scanning pages in detail, the first element seen by a reader is the photographs. Both the genders have equally shown that the photographs are the first component that attracts them to read an article. A well placed photograph plays an important role by breaking the monotony of text placement and leads to visual appeal of the reader. In conclusion the photographs have high visual impact on readers. Its placement and size play a vital role in not only leading the readers to read the article but also creates an aesthetically designed layout.