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Exploring loneliness in relation to attributional styles in children with locomotor disabilities
The concept of loneliness, as an experience with both cognitive and emotional components, has been scientifically extended to the child population only recently. With indications that loneliness can be reported by children as young as 5-7 years, it becomes relevant to examine this topic in children of specific populations. In this case, children with locomotor disabilities are examined. In addition, loneliness has been associated theoretically with the attributional style of an individual, wherein it is proposed that an internal-stable-global attributional style combines with other factors to predict greater loneliness. This research aimed at examining loneliness in relation to attributional styles in children with locomotor disabilities, studying in inclusive or integrated education settings in Bangalore. 30 children with locomotor disabilities were compared on scores of loneliness and attributional styles to 30 children without disabilities, using the Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire and the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire - Revised. These scores were also analysed and results indicated that there was no significant difference in loneliness between children with locomotor disabilities and nondisabled peers. There was a significant difference in attributional styles between the two groups, and a negative correlation was found between loneliness and attributional styles in the children with locomotor disabilities. The implications of the research include the argument for attributional retraining to address loneliness Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology. -
Examining women's purchase pattern of casual footwear in accordance with their attitudes and interests
Purpose: The present study examines the association between the choices of casual footwear attributes of women in accordance with their behavioral pattern. Design/Methodology/Approach: Data was collected from 2365 women through a questionnaire that comprised of two sections. The first section comprised of 50 AIO statements based on which the respondents were profiled according to their behavioural patterns. The second section comprised of selected footwear and store attributes. The consumers were profiled into eleven clusters using factor analysis. The regression scores were used to assign the respondents to the respective components that were extracted through factor analysis. Reliability Test and KMO Test were conducted to check the reliability and adequacy of the sample size. Further, only those variables that qualified the collinearity test were alone subject to regression analysis. Through ANOVA test, it was observed that significant differences existed among the consumers within the clusters. Therefore, the AIO statements were considered as independent variables that were regressed against ten selected footwear attributes. Findings: The Results indicated that consumers with different behaviors had varied preferences towards footwear attributes. Practical Implications: The results of the study indicate that the manufacturers in the footwear sector should revisit their existing strategies and target the consumers on the basis of their behavior as the proliferation of the unorganized sector is very high in this sector. Original Value: There are innumerable literatures that focus on trade policies followed in the footwear market in international countries, treatment of workers in the footwear industry, therapeutic use of footwear, supply chain patterns etc., but hardly any significant study that explores the consumers' behaviour and their association towards their footwear preferences has been conducted. Behavioral segmentation has been used in many other products like apparels, insurance, real estate etc., but not in the footwear sector. The present study is an attempt to fill this gap. -
The red terror and a state of uncertainty: United Nations' role In the Indian maoist struggle
In this paper, the authors argue that the long drawn armed conflict between the Maoists and the Indian State has acquired the status of a non-international armed conflict due to the organized nature of the Maoists and the scale of violence arising out of the conflict. The systematic human rights abuses by both parties and forceful displacement of civilians is a tangible threat to international peace and security in the region. In light of the deadlock between the parties, the authors make a case for United Nations' intervention in mediating an end to the conflict and restoring peace and security in the region. Drawing inspiration from the role played by the UN in ending civil wars across the globe, this paper argues for a similar intervention in the non-international armed conflict in India. The authors argue that the UN should venture to exert pressure on the State to eliminate any further abuses of human rights, and remove the impasse between both the parties to facilitate a constructive dialogue. Copyright 2012 De Gruyter. All rights reserved. -
Modified ceria as a substitute for sulfuric acid in the liquid phase nitration of toluene
Ceria, sulfated ceria, ceria-zirconia and sulfated ceria-zirconia catalysts were prepared via the co-precipitation method and calcined at 823 K. The catalysts were characterized by XRD, BET surface area, FTIR, TGA and EDAX. The acidity of the catalysts was studied by pyridine adsorbed FTIR. All the peaks in XRD correspond to the cubic fluorite structure of ceria. The crystallite size of the catalysts was found to be 4-8 nm. Incorporation of zirconia stabilizes the surface sulfate species and thus increases the sulfate content. Sulfation decreases the surface area, but increases the acidity, leading to enhanced catalytic activity. All the catalysts were found to be stable up to 923 K. Catalytic activities were tested towards the liquid phase nitration of toluene. A maximum conversion of about 34 % is achievable for the nitration of toluene to dinitrotoluene. Solid acids effectively play the role of sulfuric acid in the reaction, assisting the formation of nitronium species. 2012 Akadiai Kiad Budapest, Hungary. -
Highly selective derivative spectrophotometric determination of palladium(II) in hydrogenation catalysts and alloy samples
A simple, selective and sensitive derivative spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of palladium(II) using a newly synthesised reagent diacetylmonoxime-(p-anisyl)-thiosemicarbazone in acetic acid medium. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity of the coloured species are 3.8 104 L mol-1 cm-1 and 2.8 ng cm-2, respectively. Beer's law is obeyed between 0.2-2.0 ?g mL-1 of Pd(II) at 440 nm. The stoichiometry of the complex is found to be 1:2 (metal:ligand). Calibration graph for the first order derivative spectrophotometric determination of palladium(II) is derived by measuring derivative amplitudes at 480 nm with a linear range 0.15-2.6 ?g mL-1. The metal ions, which are normally associated with palladium in mineral and alloy samples, do not interfere. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the trace level determination of palladium in hydrogenation catalysts and some synthetic mixtures. -
Hand ability and practice in congenitally blind children
The assumption that blind children will improve in ability with practice in spatial tasks was tested in a group of 90 congenitally blind and blindfolded sighted children between the ages of 5 and 15 years. All the children were tested for hand preference. The children were then pre-tested and post-tested on four tasks that measured various hand skills with their left and right hands. The period of practice between the pre and post-test was four months. Results indicated a percentage gain with practice during development for the left and the right hands of the blind children. The left and right hands of both groups of children did not differ in percentage gain, indicating little or no relationship between hand preference and hand ability. The effects of practice showed gains for the blind children compared to the sighted blindfolded children in the post-test. Results are discussed with a view that use of self- referent cues can improve spatial ability in blind children. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009. -
Do futures and options trading increase spot market volatility in India? the case of S&P CNX Nifty
The exponential generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) model followed by standard GARCH (1, 1) model were employed to investigate the impact of introduction of futures and options trading on the volatility of the underlying spot market in India. The empirical analysis was conducted for the daily closing price returns of S&P CNX Nifty spot index from 1st January, 1996 through 31st October, 2008. The empirical results reveal that the spot market volatility has been declined after the introduction of futures and options trading in India. Besides, the empirical results indicate that the impact of recent news has a greater impact on the spot market changes following the onset of futures/options trading. At the same time, the persistence of volatility shocks has been declined in the post-derivatives scenario indicating increased efficiency of the Indian spot market. Hence, the present study suggests that the introduction of futures and options trading have improved the speed and quality of information flowing in the spot market. This enhances the overall market depth, increases market liquidity and ultimately reduces informational asymmetries and therefore compresses spot market volatility in India. Copyright 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
6-Bromo-2-[(E)-thiophen-2-ylmethylidene]-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-1- one
In the title compound, C17H12BrNOS, the cyclohexene ring deviates only slightly from planarity (r.m.s. deviation for non-H atoms = 0.047 . In the crystal, the molecules are linked into centrosymmetric R2 2(10) dimers via pairs of N-H?O hydrogen bonds. The thio-phene ring is disordered over two positions rotated by 180and with a site-occupation factor of 0.843 (4) for the major occupied site. -
Chemical leaching of an Indian bituminous coal and characterization of the products by vibrational spectroscopic techniques
High volatile bituminous coal was demineralized by a chemical method. The vibrations of the "aromatics" structure of graphite, crystalline or non-crystalline, were observed in the spectra at the 1600 cm -1 region. The band at 1477 cm -1 is assigned as VR band, the band at 1392 cm -1 as VL band and the band at 1540 cm -1 as GR band. Graphite structure remains after chemical leaching liberates oxygenated functional groups and mineral groups. The silicate bands between 1010 and 1100 cm -1 are active in the infrared (IR) spectrum but inactive in the Raman spectrum. Absorption arising from C-H stretching in alkenes occurs in the region of 3000 to 2840 cm -1. Raman bands because of symmetric stretch of water molecules were also observed in the spectrum at 3250 cm -1 and 3450 cm -1. Scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed the presence of a graphite layer on the surface. Leaching of the sample with hydrofluoric acid decreases the mineral phase and increases the carbon content. The ash content is reduced by 84.5wt% with leaching from its initial value by mainly removing aluminum and silicate containing minerals. University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012. -
Scientific basis for the preparation and characterization of iron based traditional drug annabhedi sindooram: A materialistic approach
Iron based traditional Ayurvedic drug Annabhedi Sindooram is used therapeutically for the treatment of diseases like Anaemia, Leucoderma, Prolapse of rectum and uterus, Spleenic disorders. The preparation method of iron based Indian traditional drug Annabhedi Sindooram involves conversion of a pure metal into its mixed oxide by drying and incineration. Commercially available ferrous sulphate is used as the source of iron for the preparation of Annabhedi. The structural and textural properties of the starting materials and the prepared drug were characterized systematically by different characterization techniques like PXRD, Zeta Potential Analysis, particle analysis, FTIR, ICP -AES, SEM and BET surface area analysis. The results obtained by characterization of the samples clearly explain the formation of Fe2O3, reduction in particle size, modification of surface energy and formation of metal complex with organic moieties. The strict post and pre preparation conditions followed play an important role in the morphology and medicinal activity of the drug Annabhedi Sindooram. -
Simultaneous first order derivative spectrophotometric determination of vanadium and zirconium in alloy steels and minerals
A simple, selective and sensitive spectrophotometric method has been developed for the individual and simultaneous determination of trace amounts of vanadium(V) and zirconium(IV) in acetic acid medium using a newly synthesised reagent diacetylmonoxime salicyloylhydrazone (DMSH), without any prior separation. The molar absorptivity and Sandell's sensitivity of the coloured species are 1.30 x 10 4 and 1.82 x 10 4 Lmol -1cm -1 and 3.9 and 2.5 ng cm -2 for V(V) and Zr(IV), respectively. Beer's law is obeyed between 0.26-2.80 and 0.30-3.20 ?g mL -1 concentration of vanadium (V) and zirconium (IV) at 405 and 380 nm respectively. The stoichiometry of the complex was found to be 1:1 (metal:ligand) for V(V) and 1:2 for Zr(IV) complexes. These metal ions interfere with the determination of each other in zero order spectrophotometry. The first derivative spectra of these complexes permitted a simultaneous determination of V(V) and Zr(IV) at zero crossing wavelengths of 445 nm and 405 nm, respectively. The optimum conditions for maximum colour development and other analytical parameters were evaluated. The proposed method has been successfully applied for the determination of zirconium and vanadium in standard alloy steel samples, mineral and soil samples. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. -
Forecasting stock market volatility in India - Using linear and non - Linear models
Volatility models and their forecasting performance attracted the interest of many economic agents, especially for financial risk management. The role of economic agents is to decide which one will be best model for forecasting volatility. This paper examines the modeling and forecasting performance of BSE Sensex daily stock market returns over the period from 1 July 1997 to 31 October 2008, by using simple Random Walk, GARCH, EGARCH and TGARCH models. The out-of-sample forecasts are evaluated by using MAE, RMSE, MAPE and Theil - U Statistics. The result suggests the standardized residual of white noise series strongly rejects the null hypothesis for GARCH model and capture the serial dependence and inherent nonlinearity series. Moreover, Random walk model dominates the forecasting performance and it is considered as the best model followed by the TGARCH model. International Economic Society. -
Ultrasound assisted Friedel-Crafts acylation of aromatics using ferric sulphate as catalyst
The use of ultrasound in the acylation reactions of various aromatics and polyaromatics with different acyl chlorides, in the presence of catalytic amount of ferric sulphate at room temperature, gives good yields of the respective ketones with a short reaction time. A facile and simple synthesis of various aromatic ketones using Friedel-Crafts acylation has been established from the corresponding acid chlorides and aromatic or polyaromatic compounds, respectively under mild reaction conditions with shorter reaction times (30-45 min) and in reasonable yields. This method offers the advantage of low cost and ease of purification of the products because of the small amount of ferric sulphate used in these reactions. -
An efficient optimization based lung cancer pre-diagnosis system with aid of feed forward back propagation neural network (FFBNN)
World Health Organization (WHO) reports that worldwide 7.6 million deaths are caused by cancer each year. Uncontrollable cell development in the tissues of the lung is called as lung cancer. These uncontrollable cells restrict the growth of healthy lung tissues. If not treated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in the nearby tissue called metastasis and, form tumors. In order to preserve the life of the people who are suffered by the lung cancer disease, it should be pre-diagonized. So there is a need of pre diagnosis system for lung cancer disease which should provide better results. The proposed lung cancer prediagnosis technique is the combination of FFBNN and ABC. By using the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm, the dimensionality of the dataset is reduced in order to reduce the computation complexity. Then the risk factors and the symptoms from the dimensional reduced dataset are given to the FFBNN to accomplish the training process. In order to get higher accuracy in the prediagnosis process, the FFBNN parameters are optimized using ABC algorithm. In the testing process, more data are given to well trained FFBNN-ABC to validate whether the given testing data predict the lung disease perfectly or not. 2005-2013 JATIT & LLS.All rights reserved. -
2-(6-Chloro-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-1-yl-idene)propanedinitrile
The molecular conformation of the title compound, C15H 10ClN3, is stabilized by an intramolecular N-H?N hydrogen bond with an S(7) ring motif. The crystal packing is controlled by N-H?N and C-H?N intermolecular interactions. One of the methylene groups of the cyclohexene ring is disordered over two positions with refined occupancies of 0.457 (12) and 0.543 (12). -
Managing workplace diversity: Issues and challenges
Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued. The literature on diversity management has mostly emphasized on organization culture; its impact on diversity openness; human resource management practices; institutional environments and organizational contexts to diversity-related pressures, expectations, requirements, and incentives; perceived practices and organizational outcomes related to managing employee diversity; and several other issues. The current study examines the potential barriers to workplace diversity and suggests strategies to enhance workplace diversity and inclusiveness. It is based on a survey of 300 IT employees. The study concludes that successfully managing diversity can lead to more committed, better satisfied, better performing employees and potentially better financial performance for an organization. The Author(s) 2012. -
An empirical investigation of foreign direct investment and economic growth in SAARC nations
Purpose This paper aims to investigate the causal nexus between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth in SAARC countries. Design/methodology/approach Johansen's cointegration test was employed to examine the long?run relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth in SAARC countries. Besides, the vector error correction model (VECM) was employed to examine the causal nexus between foreign direct investment and economic growth in SAARC countries for the years 1970?2007. Finally, the impulse response function (IRF) has been employed to investigate the time paths of log of foreign direct investment (LFDI) in response to one?unit shock to the log of gross domestic product (LGDP) and vice versa. Findings The Johansen cointegration result establishes a long?run relationship between foreign direct investment and gross domestic product (GDP) for the sample of SAARC nations, namely, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The empirical results of the vector error correction model exhibit a long?run bidirectional causal link between GDP and FDI for the selected SAARC nations except India. The test results show that there is a one?way long?run causal link from GDP to FDI for India. Research limitations/implications This paper employed annual data to examine the causal nexus between FDI and economic growth. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the FDI?growth relationship further by using quarterly data. Practical implications The SAARC nations should adopt effective policy measures that would substantially enlarge and diversify their economic base, improve local skills and build up a stock of human capital recourses capabilities, enhance economic stability and liberalise their market in order to attract as well as benefit from long?term FDI inflows. Originality/value This paper would be immensely helpful to the policy makers of SAARC countries to plan their FDI policies in a way that would enhance growth and development of their respective economies. 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited -
Crystal structures of 1,7-bis(furyl)-4-(1,3-dithiolan-2-ylidene)-1, 6-heptadiene-3,5-dione and 1,7-bis(thienyl)-4-(1,3-dithiolan- 2-ylidene)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione
The title compounds (bis(alkenoyl) ketene dithioacetals) were prepared starting from the cyclic acyl ketene dithioacetal and aromatic aldehydes. These compounds were characterized by IR, 1H NMR, mass spectral studies and X-ray crystal structure analysis. The bis(furyl) ketene dithioacetal crystallized in the space group P1? with unit cell dimensions a = 7.7626(12) , b = 9.0217(13) , c = 26.827(5) , ? = 86.271(14), ? = 87.643(14), ? = 66.286(11) and the structure was refined to an R-factor of 0.0528 while bis(thienyl) ketene dithioacetal crystallized in the space group P21/c with unit cell dimensions a = 10.2433(9) , b = 10.4142(6) , c = 18.0973(18) , ? = 106.0 and the structure was refined to an R-factor of 0.0446. The ketenedithioacetal functionality present between the carbonyl groups prevents the possibility of keto-enol tautomerization in these compounds. In both the crystal structures, the crystal packing is stabilized by C-H?O hydrogen bonds as well as van der Waals interactions. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011. -
The response of guide dogs and pet dogs (canis familiaris) to cues of human referential communication (pointing and gaze)
The study raises the question of whether guide dogs and pet dogs are expected to differ in response to cues of referential communication given by their owners; especially since guide dogs grow up among sighted humans, and while living with their blind owners, they still have interactions with several sighted people. Guide dogs and pet dogs were required to respond to point, point and gaze, gaze and control cues of referential communication given by their owners. Results indicate that the two groups of dogs do not differ from each other, revealing that the visual status of the owner is not a factor in the use of cues of referential communication. Both groups of dogs have higher frequencies of performance and faster latencies for the point and the point and gaze cues as compared to gaze cue only. However, responses to control cues are below chance performance for the guide dogs, whereas the pet dogs perform at chance. The below chance performance of the guide dogs may be explained by a tendency among them to go and stand by the owner. The study indicates that both groups of dogs respond similarly in normal daily dyadic interaction with their owners and the lower comprehension of the human gaze may be a less salient cue among dogs in comparison to the pointing gesture. 2008 Springer-Verlag. -
Novel algorithm for control of a shunt active power filter based on a three-level voltage source inverter
A three-level voltage source inverter is utilized to implement a shunt active power filter. SVPWM technique is used in the control circuit to generate the required gate pulses for the voltage source inverter. Principle of operation and analysis of the control circuit is presented. The proposed control algorithm ensures balance of dc bus voltages. Hence this active power filter is ideally suited for high power drives and transmission systems. The simulation results are presented and analyzed. The THD of load current is reduced to 6.47 % from 28.795 % in steady operation. 2010 Institute of Thermomechanics AS CR.