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Portrait segmentation using ensemble of heterogeneous deep-learning models
Image segmentation plays a central role in a broad range of applications, such as medical image analysis, autonomous vehicles, video surveillance and augmented reality. Portrait segmenta-tion, which is a subset of semantic image segmentation, is widely used as a preprocessing step in multiple applications such as security systems, entertainment applications, video conferences, etc. A substantial amount of deep learning-based portrait segmentation approaches have been developed, since the performance and accuracy of semantic image segmentation have improved significantly due to the recent introduction of deep learning technology. However, these approaches are limited to a single portrait segmentation model. In this paper, we propose a novel approach using an ensemble method by combining multiple heterogeneous deep-learning based portrait segmentation models to improve the segmentation performance. The Two-Models ensemble and Three-Models ensemble, using a simple soft voting method and weighted soft voting method, were experimented. Intersection over Union (IoU) metric, IoU standard deviation and false prediction rate were used to evaluate the performance. Cost efficiency was calculated to analyze the efficiency of segmentation. The experiment results show that the proposed ensemble approach can perform with higher accuracy and lower errors than single deep-learning-based portrait segmentation models. The results also show that the ensemble of deep-learning models typically increases the use of memory and computing power, although it also shows that the ensemble of deep-learning models can perform more efficiently than a single model with higher accuracy using less memory and less computing power. 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. -
Portraying the Other in Textbooks and Movies: The Mental Borders and Their Implications for IndiaPakistan Relations
Borders have been traditionally known just as physical cartographic boundaries on maps. However, the epistemological and ontological underpinnings of Border Studies have witnessed constant evolution in the past century. This has brought to the fore the importance of mental borders along with the physical borders. When it comes to a region like South Asia, the lack of regional integration is conspicuous. One of the reasons for this is the existence of mental borders along with rigid physical borders. The paper seeks to understand the process of creation of mental borders between the two South Asian neighbours by probing it from the point of view of school textbooks and cinematic narrative. School textbooks are the most fundamental building blocks of knowledge in any society. Analysis of these texts brings forward the metaphysical construction of mental borders at a very early stage. Subsequently, cinema as a mode of popular culture is an effective tool in order to understand social phenomena from peoples perspective. Here, the process of meaning creation is largely embedded in linguistics and is derived from peoples experiences. The deconstruction of these data sources leads to the understanding of the process of mental border formation. 2019, 2019 Association for Borderlands Studies. -
Positive ageing: self-compassion as a mediator between forgiveness and psychological well-being in older adults
Purpose: Positive aging aims to promote the physical health and psychological well-being of older adults for them to age successfully. Under the domain of positive aging, this study aims to explore the mediating role of self-compassion between forgiveness and psychological well-being in older adults. Design/methodology/approach: It was based on a quantitative research design, with a sample of 250 individuals within the age group of 6075 years. Data was collected using Self-compassion Scale (2003), Heartland Forgiveness Scale (2005) and Psychological Well-being Scale. Analysis was performed using Pearsons correlation, linear regression, followed by the generalised linear model of mediation. Findings: The results revealed a significant (p ? 0.001), high and positive correlation between self-compassion and forgiveness (r = 0.821), forgiveness and psychological well-being (r = 0.852) and self-compassion and psychological well-being (r = 0.802). Linear regression suggested that self-compassion and forgiveness are significant (p ? 0.001) predictors of psychological well-being, causing a variance of 75.6%. Mediation revealed significant (p ? 0.001) direct, indirect and total effect between the variables, showing that self-compassion partially mediates the relationship between forgiveness and psychological well-being. Research limitations/implications: The findings provide valuable insights on how fostering self-compassion along with forgiveness can improve psychological well-being among the elderly, however, research on additional variables, drawing comparisons between gender, economic status and clinical populations can be further explored. Nevertheless, this study can be used to develop interventions and therapeutic techniques to enhance self-compassion and forgiveness to improve psychological well-being among older adults. Originality/value: As per the best knowledge of the researcher, this work is original as it is a primary research and no data has been collected of a similar nature from the participants. 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Positive People and Confident Competitors: Resilient Youth Development Through Sport and Physical Activity
In the altering world scenario, there is a necessity to plan, prepare and progress with youth development. Research has associated positive youth development with the 5Cs model (competence, confidence, connection, character and caring) (Lerner et al., The Journal of Early Adolescence 25:17-71, 2005) to build resilience in youth. Over the past 35 years, sport psychology has established that sport helps in developing necessary psychological skills and attributes among youth. Youth sport is an extracurricular activity that provides young people with unique negative and positive experiences. Within these experiences, the individual goes beyond the self and has to work with a diverse group of others for self-development and achievement of shared goals. In this chapter, our primary objective is to review the foundations of literature concerning confidence, resilience and identity as corner-stones for positive youth development through sport. To achieve this objective, we adopt a global approach blending field experience from participatory sport, developmental sport and elite sport to provide an intervention framework grounded in applied sport psychology. Intervention framework provided is aligned to the COM-B behaviour change model (Michie et al. 2011) for sustainable change. The focus is on a balance between developing stable protective factors for mental health and positive youth development to ensure appropriate cognitive, social, emotional and behaviour skills to thrive in an evolving world. Implications for transferring this learning cross-culturally and in non-sport contexts such as schools and grass-root programs are discussed with recommendation for good practice. The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2023. -
Positive psychology in individual wellness: a thematic illustration of drama as a therapeutic framework in identity transformation
Purpose: The language of participative theatre can be considered immersive in the treatment of its dialectics where participants engage fully with their dichotomies and value systems through physical and psychological exploratory processes as they commit themselves to transformation. Design/methodology/approach: The use of drama as an intervention for challenging recurring mental models of oppressive narratives is used extensively in experiential psychotherapy and as a socio-psychological integrative tool. This experiential methodology allows for an organic development and expression of themes and motifs by encouraging a participant to develop a deeper awareness of how he/she interprets their identity and that of the community in which they function. Findings: This paper aims to review the implications of applying drama-based interventions as positive psychotherapeutic devices to facilitate self-reflection and active-constructive responding in enabling a rendering of positive patterns of thought and purposeful movement towards emotional and physical well-being. Practical implications: Research on the principles of positive psychology suggests that positive emotions lead to therapeutic change. Nurturing positive emotions which are immanent in spirituality, creativity and optimistic perseverance through autonomy and self-regulation enable individual potential to come to meaningful fruition. Originality/value: The paper conceptualizes psychodrama as a framing technique in enabling reflexive action in identity transformation and well-being. 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Positive side effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on environmental sustainability: evidence from the quadrilateral security dialogue countries
Purpose: The eruption of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has pointedly subdued global economic growth and producing significant impact on environment. As a medicine or a treatment is yet available at mass level, social distancing and lockdown is expected the key way to avert it. Some outcome advocates that lockdown strategies considered to reduce air pollution by curtailing the carbon emission. Current investigation strives to affirm the impact of lockdown and social distancing policy due to covid-19 outbreak on environmental pollution in the QUAD nations. Design/methodology/approach: To calibrate the social movement of public, six indicators such residential mobility, transit mobility, workplace mobility, grocery and pharmacy mobility, retail and recreation mobility and park mobility have been deliberated. The data of human mobility have been gathered from the Google mobility database. To achieve the relevant objectives, current pragmatic analysis exerts a panel autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL)-based framework using the pooled mean-group (PMG) estimator, proposed by Pesaran and Shin (1999), Pesaran and Smith (1995). Findings: The outcome reveals that in the long-run public mobility change significantly impact the pollutants such as PM2.5 and nitrogen dioxide; however, it does not lead to any changes on ozone level. As per as short run outcome is concerned, the consequence unearths country wise heterogeneous impact of different indicators of public mobility on the air pollution. Research limitations/implications: The ultimate inferences of the above findings have been made merely on the basis of examination of QUAD economies; however, comprehensive studies can be performed by considering modern economies simultaneously. Additionally, finding could be constraint in terms of data; for instance, Google data used may not suitably signify real public mobility changes. Originality/value: A considerable amount of investigation explores the impact of covid-19 on environmental consequences by taking carbon emission as a relevant indicator of environmental pollution. Hence, the present pragmatic investigation attempts to advance the present discernment of the above subject in two inventive ways. Primarily, by investigating other components of environmental pollution such as nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5 and ozone, to reveal the impact of covid-19 outbreak on environmental pollution, as disregarded by the all preceding studies. Additionally, it makes a methodological contribution before integrating supplementary variables accompanying with ecological air pollution. Finally, the current research article provides an alternative and creative approach of modeling the impact of public mobility on environmental sustainability. 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited. -
Possibilities for the Flow of Water and Blood through a Graphene Layer in a Geometry Analogous to Human Arterioles: An Observational Study
Atherosclerosis and aneurysm are two non-communicable diseases that affect the human arterial network. The arterioles undergo dimensional changes that prominently influence the flow of oxygen and nutrients to distal organs and organ systems. Several studies have emerged discussing the various possibilities for the circumstances surrounding the existence of these pathologies. In the present work, we analyze the flow of blood across the stenosis and the aneurysmic sac in contrast with the flow of water to explore alterations in the flow characteristics caused by introduction of the graphene layer. We investigate the blood flow past the graphene layer with varying porosity. The study is undertaken to replace usage of a stent along a blocked artery by inserting a thin layer of graphene along the flow channel in the post-pathological section of the geometry. To explain the flow, a 2D mathematical model is constructed, and the validity and exclusivity of the models solution are examined. When the artery wall is assumed to be inelastic, the computation of the mathematical system is evaluated using a finite element method (FEM) solver. We define a new parameter called critical porosity (Formula presented.) to explore the flow possibilities through the graphene layer. The findings indicate that the flow pattern was adversely affected by the graphene layer that was added to the flow field. The negative impact on the flow could be due to the position of the graphene layer placed. The (Formula presented.) values for the flow of blood across healthy arteriole, stenosed arteriole, and aneurysmic arteriole segments were (Formula presented.) and (Formula presented.) respectively. The critical porosity values were achieved with precision in terms of linear errors (Formula presented.), (Formula presented.), and (Formula presented.), respectively. The consequences of the present study disclose various possible ways to utilize graphene and its compounds in the medical and clinical arena, with a prior exploration of the chemical properties of the compound. The idea and the methodology applied for the present study are novel as there have been no previous research works available in this direction of the research field. 2023 by the authors. -
Post Covid Scenario Effective E-Mentoring System in Higher Education
During Covid-19 pandemic many people and institutions preferred online coaching instead of in person education. The problem with online is that it will be difficult to carry on interconnections between students and professors in that environment. The main constraint for conducting online session is that the people in remote areas may find a difficulty to connect to online sessions having network issues. Electronic mentoring (e-mentoring) is implemented like a website in which the mentor and mentee can communicate with each other. With the help of this mentoring the project can provide a best solution for both the mentor and mentee. They can communicate with each other with the help of online platform and even with the help of emails.This proposed method will help them to keep the track of their academic progress and achievements of students. This article mainly focus on the mentoring through physical and virtual environment in which the mentee will be interacting with the mentor to know the progress of their academics. This article discusses about the website which is developed to fulfill the needs of the student and it discusses about the various stages of development that helped in building the website. Students can share their difficulties and their achievements with the mentor who are assigned for them particularly. In future planning to implement artificial intelligence technique to online mentoring process, this is for the betterment of student's growth. 2023 IEEE. -
Post listing IPO returns and performance in India: An empirical investigation
Objectives: (a) To analyse the performance of Indian IPOs in the short term. (b) To determine the significance of abnormal return of the IPOs. (c) To study the impact of over-subscription, profit after tax, promoters' holdings, issue price and market returns on IPO performance. Design/ Methodology/Approach: This research paper is based on empirical analysis. All the 52 IPO's listed in the NSE (National Stock Exchange, India) during the year 2018 to 2020 were considered for the study. The study is based on secondary data. The daily share price and Nifty-50 index value were taken from NSE website (www.nseindia.com) and other relevant data from red-herring prospectus of the respective company. The research / statistical tools used are: Market adjusted short run performance model, Wealth relative model, 't' test and regression analysis. Scope of the study: The scope of the study is limited to the IPO's listed only in the National Stock Exchange (NSE), India. Period of study: The study covers a period from January 2018 to December, 2020. Limitation of the study: The study considers only the influence of the external factors on the performance of IPOs. Findings: The average IPO return on the first trading day is 13.52%, ranging from -23.15% to 82.16% with standard deviation of 26.72%. The average IPO return on the third trading day was the highest and is found to be14.52%, ranging from -19.22% to 117.55% with standard deviation of 18.57%. The analysis reveals that the over subscription impacts the IPO performance and the other factors namely, issue price, Profit after Tax, market returns and promoters holdings do not influence IPO returns. Originality / Value: This is an original work that analyses the listing gain or loss and the post listing performance of IPO's in India and other factors that might influence the listing gain or loss. Copyright 2021. T. Ramesh Chandra Babu and Aaron Ethan Charles Dsouza. Distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC-BY 4.0 -
Post-formalist explanation of academic achievement: Exploring the contribution of John Ogbu and Joe Kincheloe
The present paper attempts to interrogate the existing approach to understand academic achievement in the mainstream educational psychology. The paper explores the persistent question of "why academic achievement gap" in the modern society from the cultural ecological and postformalist framework of John Ogbu and Joe Kincheloe respectively. As mainstream educational psychology limits its scope in the narrowed individualistic lens, paper suggests that dominant identity based curriculum, pedagogy and knowledge may concretize the psychological categories unless revolutionary efforts are made to transcend the boundaries. Thus, paper adopts critical interdisciplinary framework, rejecting positivistic metatheory as an only relevant approach in educational psychology. 2016, De Gruyter Open Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Post-formalist explanation of academic achievement: Exploring the contribution of John Ogbu and Joe Kincheloe
The present paper attempts to interrogate the existing approach to understand academic achievement in the mainstream educational psychology. The paper explores the persistent question of "why academic achievement gap" in the modern society from the cultural ecological and postformalist framework of John Ogbu and Joe Kincheloe respectively. As mainstream educational psychology limits its scope in the narrowed individualistic lens, paper suggests that dominant identity based curriculum, pedagogy and knowledge may concretize the psychological categories unless revolutionary efforts are made to transcend the boundaries. Thus, paper adopts critical interdisciplinary framework, rejecting positivistic metatheory as an only relevant approach in educational psychology. -
POST-LISTING PRICING PERFORMANCE OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERS: INSIGHTS FROM INDIA
The objective of this study is to investigate short-run performance and whether the IPOs are over-priced or under-priced in various window periods. This study applies one-sample t-tests, capital asset pricing models, and market-adjusted excess return to quantify the short-term pricing performance as well as the risk and return of initial public offerings and market indices. The study investigates the claim that post-listing initial public offerings (IPOs) guarantee short-term gains. The twelve months following the listing, in particular, have seen the biggest gains. According to reports, investors who buy shares in IPOs get strong returns in this period. The market-adjusted initial returns for the IPOs registered on the National Stock Exchange between January 2019 and December 2020 have been found to be roughly 44%, per this analysis. 2024 Published by Faculty of Engineering. -
Post-millennials: Psychosocial Characteristics, Determinants of Health and Well-Being, Preventive and Promotive Strategies
The post-millennial generation plays a significant role in the progress and development of every nation. The health and well-being of this generation needs critical focus. Post-millennial are unique, possesses an egalitarian worldview, global and open mind-set, commitment to the environment, society, and others. They are called digital natives due to their familiarity with social media and technology. They are also called snowflake generation due to their characteristics of being gentle and unique. Double income households and well-educated parents and their assistance make them a distinguished population. However, these characteristics are less explored while addressing the health and wellness concerns of this cohort. The present chapter discusses the psychosocial characteristics of the post-millennials and their implications exclusively in the mental health realm. It also presents the strength-based strategies to address the concerns of post-millennials and the significance of evidence-based practices in mental health and sensitizing mental health practitioners about the changing scenario. The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Taylor and Francis Pte Ltd. 2022. -
Post-Operative Brain MRI Resection Cavity Segmentation Model and Follow-Up Treatment Assistance
Post-operative brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) segmentation is inherently challenging due to the diverse patterns in brain tissue, which makes it difficult to accurately identify resected areas. Therefore, there is a crucial need for a precise segmentation model. Due to the scarcity of post-operative brain MRI scans, it is not feasible to use complex models that require a large amount of training data. This paper introduces an innovative approach for accurately segmenting and quantifying post-operative brain resection cavities in MRI scans. The proposed model, named Attention-Enhanced VGG-U-Net, integrates VGG16 initial weights in the encoder section and incorporates a self-attention module in the decoder, offering improved accuracy for postoperative brain MRI segmentation. The attention mechanism enhances its accuracy by concentrating on a specific area of interest. The VGG16 model is comparatively lightweight, has pre-trained weights, and allows the model to extract incredibly detailed information from the input. The model is trained on publicly available post-operative brain MRI data and achieved a Dice coefficient value of 0.893. The model is then assessed using a clinical dataset of postoperative brain MRIs. The model facilitates the quantification of the resected regions and enables comparisons with each brain region based on pre-operative images. The capabilities of the model assist radiologists in evaluating surgical success and directing follow-up procedures. 2024 by the authors of this article. -
Post-road traffic injury experiences and challenges faced by college students: A qualitative study in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a pressing public health concern in India, leading to a rise in injury-related deaths, hospitalizations, and disabilities. India accounts for a significant portion of the world's fatal traffic accidents, with two-wheelers being involved in the majority of these accidents. The impact of non-fatal injuries on individuals extends beyond the bodily consequences of the injury and includes both the physical and psychological dimensions of the injury. The literature indicates the need for policy cascades and implementation framework for the prevention of road traffic injury. This study aimed to investigate the post-RTI experiences and challenges faced by college students who experienced road traffic injury during their college life by using a qualitative research approach in Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India. The study found that college students who experienced RTIs faced a wide range of physical, emotional, and social difficulties. The study highlights the need for a more comprehensive and holistic approach to RTI prevention that takes into account the complex interplay of individual, environmental, and societal factors that contribute to RTIs. The study also underscores the urgent need to improve the quality and availability of healthcare and rehabilitation services for RTI survivors. 2024 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. -
Posttraumatic relationship experiences in women in South India
Marriage is a socially binding intimate relationship between two individuals which is expected to be stable and enduring. In many cases, there can be severe difficulties questioning the quality of ones married life such as IPV or other kinds of abuse or exploitation which could lead to a divorce. Although divorce legally dissolves the relationship, studies suggest that the stress caused by a traumatic relationship may not end after terminating the relationship. The resemblance of these symptoms to PTSD led to the proposed diagnosis of PTRS. In this study, seven participants who have been divorced due to domestic violence for at least a year were identified and interviewed regarding their past and present life situations. The emergent themes in the data pointed to several factors that may influence ones married life, the decision of divorce and current life situations which can affect the amount of stress an individual might face concerning their past traumatic relationship. The factors influencing stress experienced during a traumatic marriage included involvement and support from ones family and in-laws, nature, and cause of abuse, stress-related to children, social support and the very decision to get a divorce. The process of overcoming fear, mistrust, and grief, social and family support, child custody, and related legal processes were factors that affected stress related to the process of divorce. The grief related to child custody, ability to rationalize the decision, career, remarriage and childrens future were some factors that influenced the stress these individuals experienced currently in their life. 2019, 2019 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. -
Potassium tert-Butoxide-Mediated Synthesis of 2-Aminoquinolines from Alkylnitriles and 2-Aminobenzaldehyde Derivatives
KOtBu mediates the reaction between 2-amino arylcarbaldehydes and benzyl/alkyl cyanides toward the expeditious formation of 2-aminoquinolines under transition-metal-free conditions. The described transformation proceeds through in-situ generated enimine intermediate from benzyl/alkyl cyanides under KOtBu-mediated reaction conditions. The substituted 2-aminoquinolines were realized in excellent yields at room temperature and shorter reaction time. The designed process exhibits operational simplicity and broad functional group tolerance in delivering the products of high significance. 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH. -
Potato Leaf Disease Identification using Hybrid Deep Learning Model
The potato is one of the most significant crops in the world. However, it is prone to several leaf diseases that can result in significant productivity losses, leading to economic challenges. Early and precise disease identification is essential for sensitive crops like potatoes. Deep learning approaches have demonstrated excellent potential in image-based disease classification tasks in recent years. This paper presents a hybrid strategy for classifying potato leaf image diseases by integrating Optimised Convolutional Neural Network (OCNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. The Adaptive Shark Smell Optimisation (ASSO) technique is used to optimize the weights of CNN models. The CNN component is initially used to extract pertinent characteristics from Potato leaves, capturing significant visual patterns related to various diseases. These extracted features are then fed into the LSTM model, which utilizes its sequential learning capability to model the temporal dependencies among the extracted features. The model performance is analyzed based on Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1-score criteria. Experimental results showed that the hybrid OCNN-LSTM model outperforms the individual CNN, LSTM, and MobileNet models. The proposed model results are compared with existing state-of-the-art work, and it was found that the OCNN-LSTM model performed better and received 99.02% accuracy. 2023 IEEE. -
Potent of sales-persons, impact on the channel of distribution in lighting industry in bangalore
Its found in array of literature on the roles, functioning of the sales persons and also illuminates how these are measured on effectiveness of channel of distribution. This study made with objective for better understanding of various variables, and out of which primary factors that could be focused for effectiveness of channel of distribution in lighting industry in Bangalore from the perceptive of intermediaries. This study draws the responses from intermediaries who are pivotal force (opinion leaders) in the market, which could prove more deep understanding for strategizing the channels in the said industry. From the review of literature we streamlined the functions performed for potent of sales persons. Further analysed with vivid using various statistical tools to understand loads (Eigen value), hence, prompting with Principal Component Analysis. This study is uses all normative way to analyse of the results reframed pivotal factors, in classifying, draining out insignificant factors. By regrouping based on the array of load, we come to understand 3 vital ingredients viz., 1) intermediaries appointment criteria 2) sales training& communication 3) concern for cost and needs of intermediaries, and urging to business institutions to opt for better channel strategy. Notwithstanding, the relationship with intermediaries are charismatic in nature, and dynamics of channel strategy would and will be determinant for success of any business organisation. 2019, Institute of Advanced Scientific Research, Inc.. All rights reserved.