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In Service Teachers' Diffrentiated Instructional Strategy and Students' Reflective Thinking and Empowered Learning
Every educational program aims at the comprehensive growth and development of learners. Education policymakers and teachers who are part of any education system have a pivotal role in providing an environment that empowers learners. Thinking pervades all spheres of human action and the ability to think reflectively differentiates man from other animals. Psychological theories have proved that, in a classroom, each learner is unique and has different learning profiles, i.e., learning style, intelligence preference, culture and gender. Therefore, one- sized curriculum doesn't fit all. This research was conducted to measure the influence of differentiated instructional strategy of in-service- teachers as a pedagogy on students' reflective thinking and empowered learning. The researcher developed and standardized a module of 16 lesson plans on English grammar and poetry integrating essential components of reflective thinking and empowered learning into differentiated instruction. Randomly selected samples of this research consisted of 100 students of standard 9, boys and girls, from an English medium ICSE school in the urban district of Bangalore. After a try-out of a few lessons on 25 samples, the researcher taught the lessons through differentiated instruction within 3 months. Through control and experimental groups, pre-test and post-test design, data were collected through 2 measuring tools (1) a questionnaire to measure the level of reflective thinking and (2) Learner empowerment measure. Data analysis of the pre and post-test scores of the experiment group shows a significant impact of differentiated instruction on all four components of reflective thinking of students, i.e., Habitual Action, Understanding, Reflection and Critical Reflection; and on the components of empowered learning of students, i.e., Meaningfulness, Competence, Impact and Choice irrespective of the difference in the gender. The results indicate that differentiated instruction could be implemented in schools as an instructional method to include all types of students and respect their diversity. -
Development of Privacy Preserving Machine Learning Techniques Using Secure Multi-Party Computation
Machine learning (ML) has brought about a paradigm shift in insight generation across various domains, including healthcare, finance, and pharma, by leveraging historical data. However, the effectiveness of ML solutions hinges on the seamless collaboration between data owners, model owners, and ML clients while ensuring that privacy concerns are meticulously addressed. Unfortunately, existing privacy-preserving solutions have not been able to offer efficient and confidential ML training and inference. This has led to an increased focus on Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning (PPML), which has become a flourishing area of research aimed at safeguarding the privacy of machine learning stakeholders. In this regard, the present research introduces novel techniques for private ML inference and training of models using Secure Multi-Party Computation (SMPC) and Differential Privacy (DP) methods on horizontally and vertically partitioned datasets. The proposed techniques are implemented using Python with open-source libraries such as SyMPC and PyDP to ensure confidential inference and model protection. The findings across various parameters illustrate the effectiveness of the suggested techniques in addressing the privacy concerns of model owners and inference clients, with no significant impact on accuracy and a linear influence on performance as the privacy parameters, such as secure nodes count within the SMPC cluster. are increased. Furthermore, the privacy gain is substantiated by information privacy measures such as Mutual Information and KL-Divergence across different privacy budgets, which demonstrate empirically that privacy can be preserved with high ML accuracy and minimal performance cost. -
Role of project management methodologies in achieving project success and business value creation in financial services IT projects
Increasingly, project-based organizations, have been implementing project management methodology for specific projects based on the dynamic environment. Financial services face challenges in the form of unstable market conditions, economies and technology, strict controls, and higher stress to meet customer demands and maximize profits. Many IT initiatives fail to provide the desired outcomes as per the project budgets, project types, and project contexts. Some are also unable to deliver business value to the customers due to the adoption of an unsuitable project management methodology. Regardless of the wide variety of choices, project managers often fail to decide on available alternatives. Project managers tend to tailor projects based on criteria that may not be associated with the overall project objectives rationally. The goal of this newlineresearch work is to assess the role of hybrid and agile project management approaches in newlineachieving success and creating business value considering project contexts for financial newlineservices IT projects. A conceptual research framework and various propositions were built on the literature analysis. To analyse the theoretical support, data was gathered through an online questionnaire. The survey was administered to project managers who were newlineinvolved at different levels in IT project development in financial service organizations. The study findings demonstrate that the various key success factors vary significantly across hybrid and agile project management methodologies considering different success measures in IT projects. And, such factors and processes play a vital role, especially in large-size high-technology projects. This research work enriches the project management literature and offers practical guidance by applying the contingency approach for comparing the effect of key success factors applicable to financial service IT projects from the viewpoint of hybrid and agile project management approaches. -
Self-care practices, professional quality of life and challenges : An exploration among counsellors in Kerala
The profession of counselling continues to prove its importance in today's fast- paced world, where pausing down and listening to someone are becoming an odd and luxurious concern of people. The counsellor may feel as though they are in a marathon, which demands them to continuously offer unconditional positive regard and empathy for their clients. This may leave them incapacitated to look into themselves and to recognize what is happening to them in this process of caring for others. Though profound discourses take place in the international scenario about the criticality of rendering to the need and well- being of counsellors, evidence-based studies, and effective interventions in this regard are still lacking in the Indian context. This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring, how the positive and negative feelings of continuous caring can affect the professional quality of life of counsellors, what are the self-care mechanisms they adopt, and which are the professional issues they find most concerning. To meet these objectives, the present research employs a mixed- method design in a sequential explanatory fashion. The study encompasses three different phases wherein phase I and II; the sample consisted of counsellors working in various government projects in Kerala selected through dense sampling method and purposive sampling method respectively. In phase III, counsellor experts with more than 20 years of experience in the field are considered through purposive sampling. Findings describe that counsellors tend to follow an unbalanced self-care routine with significantly less focus on professional aspects. The presence of a high risk of burnout and secondary traumatic stress with a moderate feeling of compassion satisfaction call for immediate interventions for counsellors. Lack of benefits, safety issues, concerns about professional identity, poor working conditions, absence of career prospects, and lack of professional credentials are the major challenges identified by the counsellors. Considering these challenges, a set of recommendations are proposed by counsellor experts, which suggest reformations at both the systemic level and academic formation. Specific recommendations are also listed on the development of personal self and professional self for safe, effective and ethical practice of counsellors across a variety of practice settings. Implications exist for policymakers and counsellor educators to create an avenue for supporting a healthier and sustainable counsellor workforce. -
A critical analysis of the complexity of leadership in zimbabwean anglican churches
This study examines the leadership controversy in the Anglican Churches of newlineZimbabwe and evaluates the extent to which the exigencies of power impacted upon this newlineconflict. This study is necessitated by the fact that the Anglican Church Province of Central Africa has been affected by an unprecedented conflict hinged on leadership wrangle and a crisis of legitimacy. This has resulted in the excommunication of Bishop of the diocese of Harare who had deliberately withdrawn from the Anglican international communion to form the province of Zimbabwe. Key to this dispute was the allegation of gay marriages presumably blessed by the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) although it appears that there were other multifarious factors behind the controversy. Given this background, this study seeks to present a critical exploration of the cardinal factors at play within the context of the Episcopalian polity and try to link church governance and ecclesiology to the context of the Anglican conflict in Zimbabwe. It should be appreciated that, as the world is setting into the 21st Century and Globalization becomes inescapable, a new breed of leaders and leadership paradigm is needed in Christian organizations. There is newlinea general consensus among scholars that the term leadership can be defined from various newlinevantage points. But for the purposes of this study, the term leadership designates the art of inducing competence, an instrument of goal achievement, a form of persuasion. Leadership newlineis the most important factor determining the future of any organization. The style of newlineleadership in a religious organization is a critical determinant in enhancing the stability and growth of the church. To this end, leadership has to do with the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans for institutional development, staff development progress in pursuit of organizational excellence. -
Receptivity to Change, Work Motivation, and Teacher Engagement among Secondary School Teachers
The present study investigated the teachers receptivity to change in relation to work motivation and teacher engagement among secondary school teachers in Kerala, India. The study primarily focussed on the newlinedevelopment and validation of the Teachers Receptivity to Change Scale. The way the teachers receive the change is a vital determinant that defines the successful execution of the change. The present study used a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design, which proceeded through three phases. The tool construction, which progressed through five stages namely, item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, validity assessment, and test-retest reliability, constituted the newlinefirst phase. The development of the tool started with the generation of a pool of items followed by item analysis. The exploratory factor analysis extracted four factors and the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the four factors namely individual, organizational, educational, and bridging newlinefactors. The structural equation modelling corroborated that the scale excellently fits in the four-factor correlated model and indexed receptivity to change as the sum of the four factors. The final 28-item Teachers newlineReceptivity to Change Scale showed adequate internal consistency (Cronbach s and#945; = .90) and discriminant validity. The validity assessment indicated a moderate correlation between receptivity to change, work motivation, and teacher engagement. The test re-test reliability analysis (Cronbach s and#945; = .88) confirmed the temporal stability of the scale. In the second phase, a sample of 433 secondary school teachers of Kerala, newlineresponded to the standardised questionnaires namely Teachers Receptivity to Change Scale, Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale, newlineand Engaged Teachers Scale. The study also assessed the influence of demographic characteristics such as gender, type of institution, age, subject taught, and years of experience using the Mann-Whitney U-test, newlineand Kruskal-Wallis test. -
Elemental Abundances in the Interstellar Medium
One method to investigate the chemical composition of the interstellar medium (ISM) and interstellar dust grains is to conduct interstellar elemental depletion studies, especially of highly abundant species. The role refractory element, silicon (Si) in extinction is not clearly understood and the distribution and evolution of moderately volatile sulfur (S) in the ISM is still an open problem. The key motivation of the work is to investigate the chemical composition of ISM of our Galaxy, and the formation, processing and distribution of interstellar dust in its different environments, mainly focusing on silicon and sulfur abundances, both in gas and dust. In the work outlined in this thesis, I will be describing the gas and dust phase abundances of Si and S in the interstellar medium using archival observations, and their probable role in the observed extinction. In this work, we also have measured the column density of S II along 9 Galactic sight lines using archival high-resolution observations from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and determined the abundances of S in both gas and dust phases. Using Archival spectral data towards 131 target stars in the Galaxy, interstellar Si abundances and depletion along those lines of sight has been surveyed. Oscillator strength correction has been performed to account for its improvements, using most recent values. This is an extensive survey done using a much larger data sample compared to previous investigations, but it substantiate the majority of the findings, which show that Si depletion is linked to both the average hydrogen density (n (H)) and the fraction of molecular hydrogen (f(H2)) along the lines of sight. Using this data, the distribution of Si and the variation of dust attributes with Si abundances also has been investigated and found that the linear component of the extinction curve is unrelated to depletion of silicon. -
Perceived organizational support and its influence on employee engagement in informatiom technology organizations
The effective management of Human Resources (HR) or People Resources of an organization through proactive and futuristic design of HR policies is pivotal for an organization s growth. Many of the current challenges faced by businesses globally are owing to industry slowdowns, loss of clientele, lower margins, stiff competition for skilled resources, and high attrition. A diverse set of workforce belonging to different generations having aspirations and expectations galore has entered the corporate sector. This diversity and advent of the generational workforce needs to be taken into consideration while designing HR policies, Reward systems and benefits; as also the factors such as changing family structures and the emergence of a gender equal workforce. Human Resources professionals and organizations are hence tasked with the responsibility of employing different ways and means to fine-tune existing HR strategies and develop new one s that could potentially increase Employee Engagement (EE) and reduce the Intention the Quit (ITQ) among the Information Technology (IT) workforce. The prime emphasis of the current study has been on assessing appropriate HR strategies that can increase engagement and retention at a minimal or no cost to the organization. This study leveraged upon organizational support and care variables such as Perceived Organizational Support (POS), Perceived Supervisor Support (PSS), and Flexible Work Options (FWO) in increasing Employee Engagement (EE) and reducing the Intention to Quit (ITQ). This study goes on to prove that by leveraging upon organizational support and care variables such as POS, PSS, and FWO; organizations can increase the level of engagement of employees, as well as improve employee retention. -
Impact of Station Rotation Model in Enhancing Writing Skills and Academic Performance of Primary School Children
The core pursuit of the research is to evaluate the efficacy of technology-integrated English language instruction using one of the blended learning approaches. The intrusion of technology in education has increased rapidly ever since COVID-19, which altered the spheres of learning and teaching. The cross-section of education and technology has become higher and more robust than before because of the pandemic, which led to the exploration of varied dimensions in technologyintegrated teaching. The field of English language teaching has also undergone a significant transformation due to the advent of technology. The introduction of interactive multimedia tools, online platforms, and language learning applications has enabled educators to engage students newlinein more effective ways. Virtual classrooms have brought about a global connection, breaking geographical barriers and fostering cross-cultural communication. The use of adaptive learning systems and AI-driven newlinelanguage applications has personalised learning experiences, catering to individual needs and pace. Furthermore, technology has provided immersive experiences through virtual and augmented reality, which enhance language acquisition by providing real-life contexts for practice. Thus, technology has diversified teaching approaches and made English language learning more accessible, interactive, and tailored to the needs newlineof diverse learners. However, learners from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are deprived of these advantages that could newlinehelp in improving their English language proficiency. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficacy of technologybased English language instruction that integrates one of the blended learning approaches for improving the writing skills of primary school students from socio-economically deprived backgrounds who have little newlineor no exposure to English language learning outside of their classrooms. -
A Study on the impact of foreign investment in infrastructure sector in india
The growth of an economy is determined by the amount of investment made or the capital created in the economy. Capital creation happens when the economy has excess of income over expenditure, in other words, savings. newlineForeign Investment is a good source of fund for developing economies whose savings is low. Hence, opening up the economy for inflow of foreign funds has almost become inevitable in the present situation of liberalization, privatization and globalization. Therefore, all developing economies, including India, are creating opportunities for foreign investments. Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in development of a country. However infrastructure projects require huge investment and the projects take a long time for the projects to be completed. This necessitates investment inflows to originate from the Government, PPP, FDI, etc. Foreign investment through foreign direct investment and Foreign Institutional Investment has newlinebecome a popular source of investment, particularly for financing the projects newlineof infrastructure sector. Foreign funds flow into the firms through investment in the equity of the firms Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in development of a country. newlineHowever infrastructure projects require huge investment and the projects take a long time for the projects to be completed. This necessitates investment inflows to originate from the Government, PPP, FDI, etc. Foreign investment through foreign direct investment and Foreign Institutional Investment has newlinebecome a popular source of investment, particularly for financing the projects newlineof infrastructure sector. Foreign funds flow into the firms through investment in the equiy of the firms Regression analysis is used to ascertain the functional relationship among FDI, Growth, Trade enness, Economic Stability and Energy position. The result of the regression analysis proves that there exists a functional relationship between FDI equity inflows and growth and trade openness. -
Financial Capability and Decision Making Effects on Financial Wellbeing of Women in Community Based Organisations
Financial Social Work (FSW) is a multi-disciplinary interactive approach that deals with financially vulnerable populations financial issues/solutions. FSW deals with individual, family and community wellbeing by increasing access to good financial services, asset-building opportunities, financial education and guidance. The two concepts newlineunderlying FSW are financial capability and financial wellbeing. Financial capability is increasingly becoming a priority for policymakers, social workers, academicians and organisations of economic and social newlinesignificance. In India, limited studies are available for measuring the financial capability of Indian citizens. While literature suggests various studies on financial capability and financial wellbeing, the focus on their combined effect has been limited. The feminisation of poverty is an newlineessential topic when discussing the capability and wellbeing of women. This refers to the increasing tendency for those in poverty to be women and children due to the reasons such as economic conditions, demographic composition and government policy. Hence, it is relevant to consider newlinewomen as the focus point of the study. The present study measures women s financial capability and examines how demographic factors influence the same. The study also explores the impact of financial capability on the decision making ability and financial wellbeing of women associated with Community Based Organisations (CBOs). It further newlineexamines whether the decision making ability mediates between financial capability and financial wellbeing. Primary data was collected from the respondents through a structured questionnaire to identify and establish these aspects. In total, 1000 women who were associated with the CBOKudumbashree in the state of Kerala, India, identified through the multistage sampling technique, participated in the survey-based study. -
Investigations on plasma sprayed Yttria stabilized zirconia thermal barrier coatings on Al-11si
6-8% Yttria Stabilized Zirconia, (Y2O3-ZrO2), typically known as 8YPSZ, Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) when applied via Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition (EBPVD) finds wide application in aerospace engineering. TBCs, applied on aero turbine super-alloy blades protect them from the high operating temperature environment and permit reduction in the required amount of cooling air, thereby improve engine performance and efficiency / component life. Likewise, 8YPSZ TBCs are widely used in larger components of the power generation turbines as well. In addition to aerospace, TBCs also find applications in automobiles and many other newlineengineering fields where high temperature and protection to metals is involved. Though a good amount of published literature is available on the 8YPSZ TBCs on super alloys (high temperatures alloys used in jet newlineengines), the same on TBCs on Al-11Si alloys (frequently used in automotive components) is very limited; even though the potential of this alloy in the automobile industry is enormous.In this research work, results from thermal barrier coating qualifications on a popular aluminium based alloy used in the automobile industry (removed from diesel engine piston), i.e. aluminium-11% silicon newline(Al-11Si) alloy is presented. Detailed coating qualification tests were performed on the Al-11Si alloy substrates with the 8YPSZ TBCs on them which comprised of material assessments at room temperature and higher newlinetemperatures. The performance of an actual multi (four) cylinder diesel engine incorporated with TBC coated pistons also was evaluated and compared with the performance of the baseline engine (without any coated newlinecomponents). Thus, the concept of Low Heat Rejection (LHR) engine was also assessed in this research work. Commercial plasma sprayable powders of 8YPSZ (METCO 204NS, newlineUSA) were plasma spray coated (TBC deposition) by employing an Atmospheric Plasma Spray (APS) system on substrates previously coated with Nickel Aluminide (NiAl) (AMDRY 956) plasma sprayable bond coat newlinepowders. -
Implementation of speech recognizer and synthesizer for the physically challenged
Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis are two complementary technologies that are used in systems to which the human voice serves as input or output. People with physical, motor disabilities prefer systems that can be driven by their voice than using the strenuous, usual and standard input-output devices such as keyboard, mouse and monitor. Solutions under the umbrella of Assistive Technology are designed to support people with disabilities to overcome the difficulties in handling their diurnal chores. Present-day commercial speech processing systems have received wider customer acceptance, yet not suitable for people with speech disabilities. It is observed that present-day speech recognizers fail to recognize voices with distortions, misrepresentations and deformations. The unintelligibility of the input voice limits the use of off-the-shelf speech processing products by the speech-impaired user community. In such scenarios, the speech processing systems require alterations to become suitable for the specialised user group. Techniques of adaptation are popular in the field of speaker recognition, which can be applied in the domain of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The main aim of this research is to model a speaker adaptive system for the speech-disabled users with articulation disorders and neurologically-based disorders due to illnesses like cerebral palsy. The problem context for this research work is two-fold: accepting the incomprehensible speech input and transforming the same into a more understandable speech. The first portion is to adapt a speech recognizer and verify the recognition accuracy; the second portion is to substitute the recognized words with a better- comprehensible voice. Due to the medical requirements of the research subjects, collecting and using live speech data of individuals is an onerous task with complex infrastructure. Also, the collection and storage of patients data are restricted by ethical procedures. Hence, the data created by various Universities, following the standard procedures in a noise-free environment are used for this research work. Experiments are conducted on the voice data sets in order to improve the recognition accuracy for speakers uttering individual words. The Speech Recognizer is implemented using Hidden Markov Models and Speech Synthesizer is implemented using a pattern-searching algorithm on a database with text input and voice output (concatenative synthesis). The adaptation techniques, viz., Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (MLLR) and Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) are applied in a pipeline with adjusted language model and pronunciation dictionary. This has reduced the Word Error Rates (WER) of recognizing the incoherent speech. In the process of adaptation, the parameters of the acoustic model of a generic speech recognizer are altered using the feature vectors generated from the training data set applying maximum likelihood linear regression. Parameters of this updated model are then used as informative priors to MAP adaptation. Speech Synthesizer, i.e., the Text-to-Speech system then translates the recognized text into a more-intelligible voice which is clearer to the listeners. The simulation with test data sets measured the effectiveness of the combined algorithm proposed here; it produced improvements in recognition accuracy from 43% (for a speaker with 93% speech intelligibility) to 90% (for a speaker with 2% speech intelligibility). An analysis of the improvement in recognition accuracy and speed of recognition for each speaker reveals that the proposed methodology is more effective for severely dysarthric speakers than those with less speech impairments, making the proposed model socially significant. -
Heat and Mass Transfer Analysis of Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Nanofluids in The Presence of Motile Microorganisms
This dissertation deals with the analysis of heat and mass transfer in Newtonian and newlinenon-Newtonian nanoand#64258;uid in the presence of motile microorganisms. The major application of the and#64258;uids in heat and mass transfer process is its capability to conduct heat. Hence, the and#64258;uids act as a source that conducts heat and cools down the temperature of the appliance. Whereas, the capacity of heat conductance is low in case of regular and#64258;uids, hence the concept of nanoand#64258;uids was introduced whose thermal conductivity is more when compared to regular and#64258;uids. The high thermal conductivity of nanoparticles helps in conducting more heat and the property of and#64258;uid to and#64258;ow helps the nanoparticles to and#64258;ow all over the desired surface and conduct heat. During the process of nanoand#64258;uid and#64258;ow, the nanoparticles undergo random motion that is termed as Brownian motion and they also experience the thermophoretic force that causes the nanoparticles to move from hotter region to colder region. Further, the presence of nanoparticles would either result in sedimentation or formation a layer of nanoparticles over the surface. This layer of nanoparticles adhered to the surface creates corrosion. Hence, it is important to prevent the nanoparticles from forming its layer over the surface and also the sedimentation of nanoparticles must be avoided to have no blockages in the system. Hence in this regards, self propelled microorganisms newlineare allowed to swim in the nanoand#64258;uid which in turn constitutes bioconvection. Considering these assumptions, problems in this dissertation are modelled such that it deals with the analysis of bioconvection caused due to the swimming of microorganisms in the and#64258;ow newlineof nanoand#64258;uid. The mathematical models of the and#64258;ow, heat and mass transfer of Newtonian and non Newtonian nanoand#64258;uids are designed using the partial differential equations with various assumptions to achieve realistic results. -
Experiences of mindfulness-based relapse prevention on the smoking behaviour of working women
Smoking is the highest cause of preventable deaths in the world. The number of working women prone to addiction is high due to the levels of stress witnessed. The number of working women who have taken up to smoking has increased and is said to increase by 20 percent by the year 2025 if not addressed. Mindfulness, a Buddhist meditative technique helps with managing addiction to nicotine. Mindfulness based relapse prevention has showed promise to reduce relapse levels amongst people who smoke. The primary objective of the study is to check the experiences of mindfulnessbased relapse prevention (MBRP) on the smoking behaviour of working women in India. An embedded experimental design was carried out on eight working women who were selected using purposeful sampling. The participants went through eight two- hourly sessions of MBRP therapy, one session a week. Three sets of interviews (pre-intervention, mid intervention and post-intervention) were conducted including pre and post-test to check the levels of abstinence self-efficacy, mindfulness, perceived stress and craving. Follow up was carried out one week, one, two and six months post intervention. Thematic analysis was used for interpretation of qualitative data and paired sample t test was used for analysis of quantitative data. Themes that emerged were experiences with the habit of smoking, which included history of newlineinitiation, reasons for smoking, transformation seen and history of quit attempts. Four weeks into the intervention the themes that emerged were impactful components within self, supporting outcomes of practice and challenging experiences. Post the intervention experiencing changes, experiencing challenges through the intervention and strategies for abstinence and continued practice emerged. Mindfulness and abstinence self-efficacy had risen whereas craving and stress had reduced. Follow up at one week showed no changes in results. One and two months follow up showed newlinereduced practice hours of mindfulness with no full-blown relapse. -
Development and Efficacy of Parenting Skill Training for Mothers of Adolescents in Kerala
The primary objective of this research is to develop and assess the effectiveness of an intervention program tailored for mothers of adolescents in Kerala to strengthen their parenting skills. The digital age and unique socio-cultural context present new challenges in child-rearing, and existing parenting programs fall short of addressing these evolving issues. The study employed a mixed-method framework with specific objectives to fill this research gap. The research unfolded in three phases. The initial stage encompassed comprehensive interviews with ten mothers and their adolescents, utilizing a constructionist model for thematic analysis. It unveiled five main and 22 sub-themes, shedding light on mothers' and adolescents' needs and challenges in Kerala. The second phase focused on designing an intervention module specifically suited to address the needs and challenges identified in the qualitative phase. The study used a pre-test, post-test, and experimental design with a control group for the third phase. The researcher used the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire, the Family Environmental Scale, and the Parental Satisfaction Scale to measure the efficacy of the training. The results presented significant improvements in parenting practices in the experimental group, particularly in positive parenting and mothers' involvement with their children. Corporal punishment and inconsistent discipline decreased, while family environment and parenting satisfaction increased. This study contributes substantially to the mental health field by offering an evidence-based program to assist mothers in navigating parenting challenges during adolescence. This intervention aims to improve family dynamics and adolescent well-being. It is a valuable resource for trainers seeking to facilitate behavioral changes within the target groups. -
Design, Synthesis, and Applications of Carbon Dots with Controlled Physicochemical Properties
Modification of carbon dots (CDs) is essential to enhance their photophysical newlineproperties and applicability. Physical (e.g., composite material blending, coreshell architecture) and chemical (e.g., doping, surface passivation) methods exist to modify CDs. Different precursors can impart varied functionalities and heteroatomic dopants on CDs. Despite several modification strategies, the reproducibility and scalability of CDs still need to be improved. Newer approaches for modifying CDs are thus essential to ensure lab-to-lab and batchto-batch consistency. Our study focused on developing novel strategies for the physicochemical modifications of CDs. The theoretical simulation we performed for surface-functionalised CDs with the aid of density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory helped to predict the mechanism of photoluminescence (PL) and to analyse the effect of hydrogen bonding on the newlineproperties of CDs (Chapter 3). We have developed a novel and general method for preparing amine functionalized CDs from modified paper precursors (Chapter 4). This strategy allows us to prepare CDs with customized functionalities, alleviating the post-synthesis modification. A novel ionimprinting strategy involving CDs synthesised from modified paper precursors newlinewas also developed through our research (Chapter 5). In another work, we utilized silk fibers as a matrix for immobilising CDs (Chapter 6). CDs prepared from mulberry leaves were fed to silkworms to produce CD-embedded silk fibres, which could be used to detect dopamine. In addition, we prepared CDs newlinefrom an unreported natural source (frankincense), which were used to detect lead ions (Chapter 7). We demonstrated the heavy metal sensing application of these newlineCDs in combination with a UV-light LED chip and a smartphone, which is relevant in resource-limited areas. The research results presented in the thesis are expected to inspire further investigations and applications related to CDs.