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Life Skills Development for Adolescent Girls at Risk with Special Reference to Rescued Devadasi Girls: An Intervention Study
Devadasi means to servant of God. The word is derived from Sanskrit language. It is originated from two words ??deva and ??dasi which mean God and servant respectively. The devadasi is attributed to girls dedicated to a Goddess called Yellama through the marriage to the deity. There are some important psycho social implications of devadasi system. The system of devadasi is a form of slave trade. In this system the young girls are exploited in the name of religious practices. A major disadvantage of this system is that it disintegrates an individual especially an adolescent girl in context of her overall development and social development in particular. Intervention has always been the essence of social work. Life skills education can be given prime importance and adolescent girls especially in situations such as rescued devadasi can be trained to apply life skills to redress their mental health problems. Teaching life skills to adolescents would help them to transform knowledge, skills, attitudes and values into real abilities. The aim of the current study was to assess the level of Life skills among the rescued devadasi adolescent girls and provide life skills training and evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the Programme. The design used was a pre experimental research design without a control group. 25 adolescent girls who are rescued from the devadasi system were part of the study from northern Karnataka. Based on the need assessment carried in the initial phase of the study, an intervention Programme was developed for the participants based on the 10 life skills laid out by the World Health Organization. A standardized Life skills assessment scale developed by Vranda (2009) was used in pre assessment and post assessments. The results indicate that the Programme was effective and displayed statistical significance in rendering the participants with Life skills. The implication of the study reiterates the importance of developing tailor made life skills Programme for vulnerable groups and girls at risk. KEY WORDS: Life skills, rescued devadasi girls -
A study on Healthcare Professionals Attitude towards Euthanasia for the Terminally Ill
The study tries to explore the attitudes that healthcare professionals have towards euthanasia for the terminally ill. In order to understand euthanasia, having knowledge of the term euthanasia and the history of euthanasia is crucial. Previous studies conducted on euthanasia and attitudes towards euthanasia showed that majority of the studies focussed on separate analysis of attitudes of the healthcare professionals. A total of 75 participants were taken for the study, out of that 52% had a positive attitude towards euthanasia whereas 48% had a negative attitude. The study has used Euthanasia Attitude Scale to determine the level of positive or negative attitudes with regard to euthanasia. In conclusion, the study found out that majority of the participants had a favourable attitude towards euthanasia. The stated result did not show to be statistically significant. The author is of the view that with the advancement in times, the society also becomes aware and more accepting to concepts which are socially ostracised. The scope for further studies on a similar topic is wide and encouraged, as there are many more areas that need to be explored and studied. Keywords: Euthanasia, Physician Assisted Suicide, Healthcare Professionals, Attitudes on Euthanasia, Terminally Ill. -
SOURCES OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES AMONG TEACHERS
Occupational Stress in workplace occurs when the job demands that are required by the individual cannot be fulfilled at a given time, which in turn leads to adverse effect on individual. Teaching has been identified as one of the most stressful occupations in many countries. The Purpose of this research was to measure the Sources of Occupational Stress and its Consequences among Private and Government Teachers of Pre- University College of Shillong, Meghalaya. The sample of the study consisted of 60 participants from Shillong city, Meghalaya, where 16 male and 44 female teachers and the participants between the age group of 20-51 years and above who are working in Private and Government institutions were considered for the study. The data was collected using structured, open and close ended questionnaire which was mailed to some participants and personally distributed to 70 participants out of which only 60 participants responded from Private and Government institution using Purposive Sampling. The Objectives of the study were, to study the demographic details of the teachers, to identify the sources of occupational stress, to study the consequences among teachers; to compare government and private teachers in terms of sources of occupational stress and its consequences. The Tools used were demographic details, Teacher Stress Inventory (Fimian & Fastenau, 1990). The collected data were analyzed using Statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS) 17.0 version. Frequency and Percentage: was used to interpret the demographic characteristics, sources of occupational stress and its consequences. T-test: was used for the comparison between two groups. Pearson's chi-square test was used to discover if relationship exist between two categorical variables. One way ANOVA was used for the comparison between three groups. The results shows that there were no significant differences found between private teachers and government teachers on sources of occupational stress and its consequences. Significant differences were found between male and female teachers on sources of occupational stress and its consequences. Keywords: Occupational Stress, Higher Secondary Teachers, Consequences of Stress -
K Shell X-Ray Intensity Ratios and Vacancy Transfer Probabilities of Iron, Silver and Tellurium from Electron Capture Sources
Over the years X-ray fluorescence studies have gained much importance due to the increasing applications in various fields. Today X-ray spectroscopy contributes significantly to the increasing knowledge in different scientific disciplines such as atomic, nuclear and radiation physics, solid-state and semiconductor research, space research, medicine and biomedical research, forensic science, metallurgy, geophysical research and source exploration, industry, archaeology, art, environment analysis and protection, and so on for elemental analysis. X-rays are generated in a wide variety of ways: Proton induced, ion induced, photon induced and X-ray emission following radioactive decay. There are two types of decay processes that result in K shell X-ray emission; electron capture (EC) process and internal conversion (IC) of gamma transitions. It has been reported that the values of K shell X-ray intensity ratios following electron capture (EC) decay are different from the theoretical values as well as those obtained via photon induced excitations. Eventhough several researchers have made attempts to study the K shell intensity ratios by photon excitation methods employing reflection geometries, there are very few reports on the measurements of K shell X-ray intensity ratios of elements following decay processes. In the present investigation, we have determined the K shell X-ray intensity ratios and total vacancy transfer probabilities of iron, silver and tellurium via electron capture decay of Co57, Cd109 and I125 employing 2??-geometrical configuration method. The obtained results are discussed in the light of the effects of electron capture decay on X-ray emission probabilities comparing with theoretical, semi-empirical and experimental results. This dissertation consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction to the subject and ends with specifying the relevance of the present investigation. Chapter 2 deals with the theoretical details followed by the literature review and statement of the problem. In the following chapter, we give a brief description on the experimental procedure and data analysis methods. Chapter 4 includes the results and discussions. In the concluding chapter, a summary of the present investigation and the scope for future work are clearly stated. -
A STUDY ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND PERCEIVED AUTONOMY SUPPORT AMONG PRE-UNIVERSITY COLLEGE TEACHERS
ABSTRACT Accountability of Teachers referred to as teacher accountability in educational literature is a multi-dimensional concept consisting of teacher participation in school decision making. It further focuses on what is best for the student and the profession of teaching. Self-determination theory postulates that when teachers perceive an autonomy supportive work climate which satisfies their three core psychological needs, (Competence, Autonomy and Relatedness) they experience a feeling of wellness and belongingness to the institution and are energized to exert extra effort in all the activities of the institution they engage in. The present study on Accountability and Perceived Autonomy Support among Pre-university College Teachers undertaken by the investigator focused on the relationship between ??Accountability of Teachers and Perceived Autonomy Support among Pre-university college teachers of Bangalore north and south belonging to three types of management such as government, private aided and private unaided. The aim of this study was to find out whether there is any relationship between Accountability of Teachers and Perceived Autonomy Support. The sample of the study consisted of 392 pre-university college teachers (both male and female) of three types of colleges; namely government, private aided and private unaided. The results of the study show that there is a significant relationship between ??Accountability of Teachers and Perceived Autonomy Support among pre-university college teachers. Further female teachers are more accountable than their male counterparts and Married teachers are found be more accountable than unmarried teachers. It was also found that there is a significant difference in the Competence dimension of ??Perceived Autonomy Support among pre-university college teachers belonging to three types of management and the Private Aided pre-university college teachers have a higher level of Competence (dimension of Perceived Autonomy Support) compared to Private unaided pre-university college teachers. Private Aided Pre-university college teachers have higher level of Relatedness (dimension of Perceived Autonomy Support) as compared to Private unaided College Teachers. These findings give a clear indication to principals and administrators of private unaided pre-university colleges regarding the imperative need to implement appropriate strategies in order to enhance perceived autonomy support of their teachers. Key words: Accountability of Teachers, Perceived Autonomy Support, Pre-university college teachers -
Study of suction and injection combination on the onset of double-diffusive convection in a micropolar fluid
The effect of suction and injection combination (SIC) on the onset of double-diffusive convection in a micropolar fluid is studied us- ing linear stability theory. The eigenvalue is obtained for free-free, rigid-free, rigid-rigid velocity boundary combinations with isother- mal or adiabatic on the spin-vanishing boundaries numerically using Galerkin Technique. The influence of various micropolar fluid param- eters on the onset of convection has been analyzed. It is found that by adjusting SIC it is possible to control the double-diffusive convection in a micropolar fluid. It is also observed that the effect of Prandtl number on the stability of the system is dependent on the SIC being pro-gravity or anti-gravity. -
Design and Fabrication of Differential Thermal Analyser for Thermal Characterization of Materials
Thermal analysis techniques are widely used in both industrial and scientific domains to understand the changes in structural and chemical composition of materials. The structural and chemical composition of most of the materials undergoes changes when heated. Using various thermal analysis techniques such changes are monitored in various atmospheres of interest. Through these analytical experimental techniques the physical properties of the substance can be studied as a function of temperature. These techniques can be used to characterize, qualitatively and quantitatively a huge range of materials over a substantial temperature range. Results from the thermal analysis instruments can be obtained quickly and henceforth it has wide variety of applications. These thermal methods find widespread use for both quality control and research applications on polymers, pharmaceutical preparations, clay, minerals, metals and alloys. Differential thermal analysis is one of the thermal analysis methods, which records the difference in temperature (??T) between a substance and an inert reference material as a function of furnace temperature or time. Any transformation ?? change in specific heat or an enthalpy of transition ?? can be detected by Differential Thermal Analyser (DTA). The automated DTA is available readily from various manufacturers but it is expensive. Therefore researchers usually prefer to design and build their own instruments as per the individual requirements of experiments under various specialized conditions. Furnace, sample holder, controlled heating source, low noise-high gain amplifier and differential recorder are the main units of a differential thermal analyser. In the present work, we have made an attempt to design and fabricate a low cost differential thermal analyser for the thermal analysis of materials. -
PUBLIC DEBT AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN INDIA
With the intention of stabilizing economy and to stimulate economic growth rate the modern day governments are presenting un balanced government budgets. This is increasing the growth of public debt. This deficit can be bridged by increasing the existing rates in taxes, imposing new taxes, and borrowing from public. The objectives of this study are 1) Analyzing the trends of public debt in India. 2) Analyzing the components of internal debt of India. 3) To find the threshold point of public debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio in India. 4) To investigate the connection among public debt and economic growth rate in India. Time period is 1981-2011-2012 and study used statistical tools and econometric techniques like percentage, R square, Adjusted R square, linear regression, and unit root test. Results show that there is an increasing trends in public debt of India. Regression result showed that 60 percent is the threshold point of public debt to GDP ratio and unit root test cleared that no need to check connection among public debt and gross domestic product. -
A Study on the Dual Role of Working Women in the Information Technology Sector in Bangalore
This study is conducted among married working women in the Information Technology sector in Bangalore. It is an effort to understand the marginalized position of married working women in terms of decision making power and pay scale parity at the workplace. It also tries to study the challenges married women face while dealing with both spheres of life i.e. domestic and place of work. This study is also an attempt to understand those factors that affect womens work participation in the Information Technology sector. In a patriarchal society, socialization differs for men and women. Women are socialized to be feminine, family and household work is considered their main priority; while men are always socialized to be the head of the family and are considered the primary breadwinners. The study looks at the aspect of dual roles of women and tries to explain how the dual roles affect their work. The topic of the study has been formulated after conducting informal conversations with married women in the Information Technology sector. The data revealed that despite having good educational degrees ?? equivalent to men ?? they face differential treatment while getting opportunities at the workplace such as onsite opportunities. They also do not enjoy the status of being the primary earner in their family and household work is still considered their primary work. The title clearly reflects the impact of dual roles of married women on work participation in the Information Technology sector. The Information Technology sector has been chosen for the present study in order to understand the position of women in this sector, to understand their level of work participation and how the dual role affects their work participation. Snowball sampling method has been used to select the samples. The total sample size was 120. Five companies were selected among the top 100 companies in the south area of Bangalore. The primary data has been collected using questionnaires and unstructured interviews. This dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction to the study which includes the Information Technology industry in India and Bangalore, and the dual role of women. It discusses how the Information Technology industry has boomed in India. It also describes the two roles i.e. domestic and professional roles in the lives of working women. The second chapter discusses review of literatures. It includes journal articles and books on the dual role of women and the Information Technology industry. The third chapter explains the methodology used for the study. This has offered guidance to the researcher in framing objectives and described the population and sampling technique for the study. The analysis and interpretation of the data have been discussed in chapter four. The data was analysed and graphic representation has been done using SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Sciences). Chapter five explains the summary and conclusion of the study. The findings of the study have been categorized on the basis of the research objectives. -
A Study of Metaphors in the First Four Harry Potter Novels
This dissertation concentrates on the study of metaphors in the first four Harry Potter novels. Written by J K Rowling, the novels with the powerful tool of ??magic turn common, ??real themes and things into something delightful and engaging. The dissertation aims to analyze this merging and argues that it is through the metaphors present in these four novels that such a blend is possible. Through a textual analysis of the first four Harry Potter novels, Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the dissertation first shows that these novels contain characteristics of magic realism fiction. The considerations of these characteristics or features verify the presence of magic and reality in the novels. Following which, the dissertation corroborates that the presence of magic and reality, the fusion of these two elements are possible through an extensive use of metaphors. The arguments are primarily developed with the support of vivid examples from all the four texts. The metaphors explored are divided into two major categories; human and non-human. Both the categories, established in different chapters, demonstrate that they are functional is merging the elements of magic and reality. The magic in reality and the real in the magical can be comprehended, analyzing the use of metaphors. Evidencing which had been the purpose of this dissertation through a study of the first four Harry Potter novels. -
A Comparative Study of Factors Influencing Consumers' Preference for Store Brands and National Brands - A Case Study of Big Bazaar in Bangalore
The recent wave of reforms by the Government to introduce Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in various sectors is bringing a new zeal to the investment climate in India. One of the most debated reforms is the policy for allowing 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail. The Government has now approved of 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail. According to Deloitte, organized retail, which constitutes 8 percent of the total retail market today, will grow much faster than unorganized retail and is expected to be 20 percent by 2020. With the emergence of organized retail, a new set of brands ?? store brands, have evolved. Store brands are slowly gaining popularity across the organized retail sector. While elaborate research on the emergence of store brands have been undertaken in the developed economies of North America and Western Europe, research in the context of the Indian market is still at the nascent stage. This study intends to identify the factors influencing the consumers preference towards national brands and store brands across Bangalore. As Big Bazaar is the largest retail store chain in India and also stocks a large variety of store brands, the study has been confined to the Big Bazaar outlets across Bangalore, with specific focus on the food category. Survey research method was followed in this study. Questionnaire was used for collecting primary data while the secondary data was collected from selective sources of data like journals, websites, research reports, magazines and newspapers. The convenience sampling technique was used. A sample of 250 consumers was selected from the Bangalore city. The statistical techniques which are used in the study include descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages, reliability test and one- way ANOVA. Some of the key findings of the study are:- There is no significant difference between national and store brands for factors like product innovation, repeat purchase, product variety across category, shelf placement, brand equity, taste, shelf life and nutritional benefit. The factors perceived quality, packaging, price rise, trust, TV/Newspaper promotions, shelf search, social acceptance, freshness and cleanliness influences a consumers preference towards national brands. Four factors primarily influence consumers preference towards store brands. They are perceived risk, value for money, copycats and in-store promotion. vi It is intended that the findings of this research, about the factors influencing consumers preference towards national and store brands, will be useful to retailers, food product manufacturers etc. It will help them to assess their current strategies revolving around their respective national or store brands. The findings will also help them to target the right audience to gain maximum mileage as extensive detail has been provided based on a number of demographic variables. The content in this report details out the research conducted in this regard followed by a conclusion. Keywords: Organized retail, Store brands, National brands, Foreign Direct Investment, Demography -
Cognitive Style and Academic Achievement among School Students
The aim of the present study was to explore cognitive style and academic achievement among school students using a quantitative approach. The study involved a total of 423 students from grade VIth and VIIth. Students from both private and government schools participated in the study. The study used group embedded figures test by Witkin et al. (1971) and classroom achievement test by Singh & Gupta (2007) to determine the participants field independent and dependent cognitive styles and academic achievement. T test was used to compare the academic achievement of field independent ?? field dependent cognitive style students. Whereas, two-way Anova test was done to analysis the interaction effect of grades, gender, and type of school along with cognitive style on academic achievement of students. The findings of the present research showed that there was a significant difference between field independent and dependent students' on academic achievement. It also revealed that students with field independent cognitive style performed significantly better than field dependent students. However grades had a significant main effect on academic achievement of students. There was no interaction effect found between grades and cognitive style on academic achievement of students. In addition, it was also found that there was no interaction effect of type of school and cognitive style on academic achievement of students. The findings of the study benefits teachers by indicating significant classroom implications which will help them to develop effective learning materials and strategies which are suitable for their student in order to utilize their cognitive style strength effectively. It helps students in making effective decisions regarding ones enrolment in higher education courses and career choices. Key Words: Field Independent-Dependent Cognitive Style, Academic Achievement, Grades, Gender and Type of School. -
Microindentation Analysis of Bi2Te3 Crystals
Recent trends and advancements in materials research and technology have led to a renewed interest in the growth of crystalline solids with better physical perfection and high purity. The major emphasis of investigations has been on the growth of single crystals and the study of their physical properties suitable for device fabrication. The availability of crystals from natural resources is inadequate to meet the need of industries and also do not give sufficient variety. Although crystal growth has been the subject of absorbing interest for many years, much of the latest developments have been stimulated due to its increasing commercial importance for the fabrication of thermoelectric, optoelectric and nonlinear optical devices. Crystal has an ordered arrangement of atoms or molecules in microscopic scale and the atomic regularity shows up in the internal and external symmetry. The change in crystal shape should be brought about by the difference in controlling mechanisms of the growth dynamics. It is inevitable to investigate the relationship between the growth mechanism and resulting growth morphology. The developments in crystal technology have significant contribution to many areas of basic and applied solid state research. Industries currently rely on bulk grown crystals of a variety of materials. Hence, single crystals have been extensively studied to explore their novel physical properties and potential applications. The first chapter deals with an introduction to the crystal growth, followed by a brief history of semiconducting materials. A detailed account on the properties and applications of bismuth telluride crystals is reported. This chapter concludes with different mechanical properties and scope of the research problem. A review of literature to present theoretical knowledge on growth and characterization of bismuth telluride crystals is given in chapter 2. Chapter 3 outlines the experimental procedures and different characterization techniques used for the present work. A detailed study on the vapour and melt growth of bismuth telluride crystals and its mechanical properties is also reported. Chapter 4 is devoted to provide a detailed discussion on the results obtained from experimental research. Final chapter covers the summary and conclusions of this research work. The report ends with a reference section, listed as per the international standards. -
Synthesis, Characterization and Analytical Applications of Disubstituted urea/thiourea derivatives
Two Urea/Thiourea derivatives have been synthesized in good yields from Urea/Thiourea and aniline in dry media conditions by using p-TSA as catalyst under microwave assisted method and they are characterized by IR and NMR spectral analysis. There are several advantages of foresaid catalyst like rate enhancements, higher yields, easy work-up procedure and energy efficient. The reaction has been done under solvent free condition having short reaction time period, increased safety and economic advantages. This Thiourea derivatives reagent has been used for the spectrophotometric determination of palladium. The results obtained by the proposed method is accurate reproducible. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the determination of palladium(II) in some synthetic mixtures of alloy samples and mineral. This dissertation contain five chapters Chapter 1 includes significance of Urea/Thiourea derivatives, green experimental protocol, heterogeneous catalysts. It also includes Objective of the study which is a develop a new methodology for the synthesis of Urea/Thiourea derivatives. Chapter 2 includes review of literature on the synthesis of Urea/Thiourea derivatives by different varieties of techniques. Different catalysts are used for that technique. Chapter 3 describes about materials and experimental procedures which are used in this synthesis . Chapter 4 deals with the various characterization results of Urea/Thiourea derivatives. It also describes the application of N,N??-diphenylthiourea in the trace level determination of palladium. Chapter 5 gives the summary and conclusion of the present study. It also gives the future scope of the present work. Furthermore, short reaction times, good yields of products, mild reaction conditions, and easy work-up/purification are the other noteworthy advantages which make this method a valid contribution to the existing methodologies is given in this chapter. Key works: Urea/Thiourea derivatives, p-TSA, MWI, IR, NMR, and Palladium. -
Influence of Emotional Labour on General Health of Cabin Crew and Airline Ground Employees
The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of emotional labour and its two forms ?? deep acting and surface acting on the general health of airline employees. Further, the study aims to find if there is any influence of emotional labour and its two forms deep acting and surface acting across demographics. The demographics that are included in the study are gender, age, marital status, and work tenure. This study adopts a quantitative research design. Survey forms are distributed among airline employees. A total of 295 airline employees participated in this study. Out of the 295 participants, 190 works as cabin crew and 105 as airline ground employees. The study finds that emotional labour does not significantly influence the general health of airline employees. Also, deep and surface acting do not show any significant influence on the general health of employees. The study reveals that emotional labour-deep and surface acting vary across demographics. The female employees experience more emotional labour than the male employees. Also the female employees engage in deep acting than their counterparts. The employees belonging to the age group of 31 to 35 years and with 11 to 15 years of work experience are seen to experience more emotional labour than their respective counterparts. This study has major implications in the HRM department of industries and also in Aviation Psychology in India. However, the study is not free from limitations. One of the major limitations is that the study only included airline cabin crew and airline ground employees and hence cannot be generalized to other population. Keywords: emotional labour, deep acting, surface acting, general health -
Families Experience with Family Therapy: A Qualitative Inquiry
Various studies have found out that the experiences of the families with family therapy in several countries have generally been positive and the number of the people who benefit from family therapy is also high. Studies reveal that though there is a heightened need for family therapy in India, there is a kind of reluctance among the people towards it. When there is good number of literature in India that reveals the general attitude of Indian population towards family therapy, there is a lack of studies that explore the lived experience of the family members who have undergone family therapy. This study was designed to examine therapy from the point of view of the families. The participants of this study were eight families from Kerala and Karnataka who had completed entire family therapy under the trained professionals in the duration of last five months. The data was collected through in-depth interviews. The study reveals the common factors that led the families to family therapy, their experience with the whole therapeutic process, the barriers that prevented them and the perceived benefits of family therapy. Ten global themes and twenty seven organizing themes have been identified on the whole in relation with the research query. The findings are described along with the practical implication, suggestions and future research agendas. Keywords: Therapeutic process, Rapport building, Working phase, Termination, Interventions, Mental well-being -
Psychological Profile of Suicide Survivors: Retrospection on Decisions of Suicide
The event of Suicide is one that has been studied and documented in several studies abroad and in India. But, to approach the event of Suicide from the perspective of the ??attempted or ??survivor is rare. The purpose of this research is to understand the meaning the act of suicide holds, emotions and thoughts, of the attempter, leading up to the suicidal decision and to trail them till the decision manifests into action. It would provide an in depth perspective of the experience of this event. The research attempts to find not only the meaning behind these events but to also put together a psychological profile by observing the common thoughts, emotions and meaning attributed to the attempt. The research will make use of the method of narratives, over a period of sessions, which would provide the life stories of the individual, as well as the event, in itself. The research is conducted on ten women participants in age range of 18 ?? 35 years. The participants are selected based on the criteria, specified. The research is qualitative in nature. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) will be used to analyze and interpret the data collected. Data analysis shows that the psychological profile, of a suicide survivor consists of cognitions that are predominantly, restrictive and negative in nature, experience of negative emotions especially that are related to the traumatic event and suicide as a meaning fulfilling action. The research would attempt to provide a profile which would not only help in understanding the meaning and life events of such an individual but would also help in training of mental health professionals. Keywords: Suicide, psychological profile, meaning of suicide, suicide decision, cognitions and suicide, emotions and suicide, understanding suicide, causative factors of suicide. -
Elusive Healthcare and Ailing Population: An Analysis of Indias Health Policy with Reference to the Health Status of Urban Poor in Bangalore
Health is a state of mental, physical and social well-being. India is in need of a healthcare system that can fulfill the demands of over a billion people who are unable to bear the burden of the cost of healthcare. The major challenges in the countrys healthcare system are the universal access to healthcare, health equity, healthcare human resources and healthcare finance. Increasing population in cities and urban poverty has raised a strong concern in the health condition of the urban poor in particular. The speedy growth of cities in the country in conjunction with the growth of the urban poor has made this position more important at this point of time. The present study basically aimed at finding the major factors influencing urban health and healthcare. This research aims in finding out the reasons for the fragmentation of Bangalores health services with unequal distribution of resources and minimum communication between various services. This study also focuses on areas of health concern like insufficient primary healthcare, lack of referral system, insufficient public participation towards healthcare promotion, co-ordination between various governmental or non-governmental departments etc. It is mainly based on secondary data. Interview guide is used as a tool to collect primary data. Content analysis is used to analyse and describe the present scenario objectively and systematically. Bangalore has a wide infrastructure of healthcare centres but still the poorer sections of the society do not have easy access to them. A significant number of government schemes have been implemented to provide better healthcare services in Bangalore. It can be said that Bangalore has got enough health resources to serve its people. However, the urban poor do not have the necessary means to access a proper healthcare due to various reasons like the shortage of staff, medicines, diagnostic services in public sector and private healthcare expenses which are unaffordable. The government has been failing to achieve its health target in the urban areas and ultimately left the same in the hands of private health sector. The funds allocated on health are not used effectively towards improved health service delivery. Healthcare budgeting, healthcare policies, disease eradication programmes and improvement plans of primary healthcare centres and dispensaries etc. are the main areas in which the government is falling short. There is a need to empower the urban poor to maintain their rights within the context of development. A policy which is more oriented towards the partnership of private and public healthcare sectors is advisable. A universalized system to provide equitable and basic care to every individual is required. Public-Private Partnership in health sector is a key for improving the health of the population. The governments act of financing towards healthcare must in fact be increased to 2-3 per cent of GDP. As such, the present study came out with a lot of suggestions to improve the health status of urban poor. It has also made an attempt to analyse the policy issues associated with healthcare. The researcher believes that this will be definitely an addition to the existing literature on healthcare systems in India. Layout of the dissertation: The dissertation is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the introductory part of the research. It defines the basic concepts by giving brief summary or by providing information which are necessary to understand this research. This chapter also describes the research problems which motivates the researcher to conduct the study. Second chapter reviews the literature of healthcare problems faced by the common man. It includes reviews of various articles and books contributed towards healthcare and health policies by various health experts and practitioners. The third chapter talks about the methods used to implement the research. It explains the methodological procedures such as tools for data collection, sources of data and research design which are used to carry out the study. Data analysis is the fourth chapter and this part of the research includes the analysis of the various collected data. It includes the process of inspecting and transforming of the collected data with the goal of highlighting useful information, later helping towards suggesting conclusion of the research. The final chapter presents the summary of the research with important findings and suggestions. Key words: healthcare, health policy, health status, ailing people, urban poor, cost of treatment, public health sector, private health sector, health infrastructure. -
K shell Radiative and Total Vacancy Transfer Probabilities of Barium & Thallium from Internal Conversion Electron Sources
The information obtained from X-ray fluorescence parameters is very important in the study of some basic phenomena, in atomic molecular and radiation physics. This demands for accurate values of XRF parameters such as shell wise and sub-shell wise X-ray fluorescence yield, fluorescence X-ray production cross-section, shell and sub-shell intensity ratios, K to L vacancy transfer probabilities and so on. Nuclear processes like orbital electron capture or internal conversion of gamma transition and interaction of photons or charged particles give rise to X-ray fluorescence. It is reported that the probability of emission of X-rays by decay process is different from the probability of emission of X-rays by photoionisation[1-3]. The K shell XRF parameters of elements have been extensively studied by several researchers by photon exciation methods and varieties of detectors [4-9]. But there are not many reports on the measurements of K shell X-ray intensity ratios of elements following decay processes. This may be due to the requirement of the radioactive sources of the order of 100mCi and preparing many electron capture and internal conversion sources of this strength may be a difficult task. In view of this, we have made an attempt to study the effect of internal conversion on the probability of X-ray emission of thallium and barium by determining K shell intensity ratios, K ?? Li, K-M radiative and K-L total vacancy transfer probabilities from weak internal conversion sources Hg203 and Cs137respectively. To examine the effect of decay process on X-ray emission the K shell fluorescence parameters determined are compared with the theoretical values and other experimental results obtained using radioactive decay and photon excitation methods. The dissertation consists of five Chapters. In the first Chapter, we introduce the project work carried out. In Chapter 2, we present the brief theory of XRF and literature survey. It consists of two sections; in section 2.1, we give the theoretical aspects of the K X-ray fluorescence and in section 2.2, we present the literature survey related to the determination of K X-ray intensity ratios and vacancy transfer probabilities through photoionization methods and decay processes. Chapter 3 deals with experimental details such as the radioactive sources, detector and electronic modules used in our experiment, the experimental arrangement and standardization of spectrometer, and experimental procedure adopted in the collection and analysis of the data. In Chapter 4, we present the results on K X-ray intensity ratios and vacancy transfer probabilities along with the theoretical, semi-empirical and others experimental values. In Chapter 5, we give the conclusions. -
Brand Identities and Facebook: A Content Analysis of Photographs and Comments on Brand Pages on Facebook
Construction of a brand image using different forms of media has become one of the crucial factors of branding today. The social media is a promising tool to promote ideas to a wider audience, thus it becomes vital for advertising bodies to understand the petite nuances of the medium. This study looks at the role, the profile photos and the cover photos play in the process of identity construction of a brand on Facebook. The Facebook comments are designed in such a way that there are multiple access options to them. The study was conducted on leading brand pages to look for the ways in which the message was decoded in the form of comments. These comments were categorized into different positions of the encoding and decoding theory and were also analyzed for the appeals of rhetoric. The study showed the balance in the comments that are for and against the brand ideology. The study also shows the presence of too much noise in the comments which have no role to play in the brands identities.