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The illusion of social class identity and academic performance: Exploring the role of father education as an indicator of socioeconomic status
The academic achievement of low social class students has been attributed to lack of ability and their socioeconomic Status (SES). However, a recent meta-analysis reported decreasing relationship between SES and academic achievement in the U.S. population (Sirin, 2005). The present study attempted to explore the relationship between social class identity processes and academic performance in an Indian context. The study took students' self report on all indicators of SES and separated high and low social class students on the basis of their fathers' education. The result showed that social class based identity process has less important role in explaining the existing academic achievement gap. Thus the need arises to explore other identities that may collaborate with the social class identity in an educational domain. -
Regression testing on services in mobile applications
The power of mobile devices has increased dramatically in the last few years. The Mobile apps market increases every day and Mobile device has become one of the most important equipment in peoples daily life, which brings us not only convenience of communication, but more and more work and entertainment applications. Mobile testing becomes very crucial as the mobile applications and mobile users are growing rapidly. Test consultants, test specialist, test managers and software engineering researchers are finding ways to do effective verification methods and to ensure reliability of mobile applications. In this paper, we propose regression testing framework on services in Remote Link Lite (RLL) mobile application. In order to perform regression test on mobile application, we have considered RLL application for POC purpose. Research India Publications. -
Control of NOx from a DI diesel engine with hot EGR and ethanol fumigation: An experimental investigation
Oxides of nitrogen (NOx) are one of the major hazardous pollutants from diesel engine emission. Various control technologies exist for its control but each technique has advantages and disadvantages. At present, there is no single optimal technique that can control NOx without other side effects. Technologies available for NOx reductions either cause fuel penalty or increase other polluting emissions. Exhaust Gas Recirculation is an effective technique in controlling oxides of nitrogen in diesel engines but do not become attractive at higher loads and higher percentage of recirculated gas as combustion tends to deteriorate at higher loads leading to reduced engine thermal efficiency and increased hydrocarbon and smoke emission. Ethanol is an established alternate fuel used in diesel engine either as a blend or fumigated using a separate injector. Experiments were conducted on a single cylinder diesel engine to examine the effect of EGR temperature on NOx and other emission constituents. Hot EGR gave better results up to 30% EGR rate but EGR cooling was found better in terms of NOx reductions and efficiency. It was found that NOx reductions up to 88% was possible but at the cost of about 18% loss in thermal efficiency. This inconvenience of fuel penalty caused by Exhaust Gas Recirculation can be overcome by applying ethanol fumigation. The findings of experimental results for this combined technique are presented in this paper. With this combined technique, apart from reducing the oxides of nitrogen, engine power and efficiency approaches to that of only diesel combustion condition with improvements in smoke, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions. 2013 The Korean Society of Automotive Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. -
Exploring graph-based global similarity estimates for quality recommendations
Data sparsity or the insufficiency of past user preferences in predicting future user needs continues to be a major challenge for RS engines. We propose a solution to the sparsity problem by exploring similarity measures that capture the global patterns of commonality between users or items by leveraging on indirect ways of connecting users (items) through a user (item) graph. Entities (users or items) sharing common features are connected to each other by edges weighted by their proximity or distance. Graph-based techniques, for estimating transitive similarity between entities not directly connected, are exploited to bring the entities closer thus facilitating collaboration. Furthermore, we also propose a combined user-item graph approach for exploiting the similarity between users preferring similar items (and vice versa). In this work, we have suggested alternatives to the already existing global similarity assessment and we aim to investigate the appropriateness of the proposed techniques under differing data features. 2014 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. -
Cryogenian magmatism and crustal reworking in the Southern Granulite Terrane, India
Understanding Neoproterozoic crustal evolution is fundamental to reconstructing the Gondwana supercontinent, which was assembled at this time. Here we report evidence of Cryogenian crustal reworking in the Madurai Block of the Southern Granulite Terrane of India. The study focuses on a garnet-bearing granite-charnockite suite, where the granite shows in situ dehydration into patches and veins of incipient charnockite along the contact with charnockite. The granite also carries dismembered layers of Mg-Al-rich granulite. Micro-textural evidence for dehydration of granite in the presence of CO2-rich fluids includes the formation of orthopyroxene by the breakdown of biotite, neoblastic zircon growth in the dehydration zone, at around 870C and 8 kbar. The zircon U-Pb ages suggest formation of the granite, charnockite, and incipient charnockite at 836 73, 831 31, and 772 49 Ma, respectively. Negative zircon ?Hf (t) (-5 to -20) values suggest that these rocks were derived from a reworked Palaeoproterozoic crustal source. Zircon grains in the Mg-Al-rich granulite record a spectrum of ages from ca. 2300 to ca. 500 Ma, suggesting multiple provenances ranging from Palaeoproterozoic to mid-Neoproterozoic, with neoblastic zircon growth during high-temperature metamorphism in the Cambrian. We propose that the garnet-bearing granite and charnockite reflect the crustal reworking of aluminous crustal material indicated by the presence of biotite + quartz + aluminosilicate inclusions in the garnet within the granite. This crustal source can be the Mg-Al-rich layers carried by the granite itself, which later experienced high-temperature regional metamorphism at ca. 550 Ma. Our model also envisages that the CO2 which dehydrated the garnet-bearing granite generating incipient charnockite was sourced from the proximal massive charnockite through advection. These Cryogenian crustal reworking events are related to prolonged tectonic activities prior to the final assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. 2015 Taylor & Francis. -
N?-[(E)-Furan-2-ylmethylidene]-4-hydroxybenzohydrazide
The title compound, C12H10N2O3, exists in the E conformation. The five-membered ring and the phenyl rings form dihedral angles of 36.73 (10) and 12.22 (10), respectively, with the central C(=O)N2C unit. The crystal packing is dominated by strong N - H?O and O - H?N hydrogen bonds. Together with weaker C - H?O interactions, these establish a three-dimensional supramolecular network. -
Joycean novels: A broad secularizing project
This paper discusses how the Irish novelist James Joyce used the Novel form as an interface of religion and secularism in fiction. The secularism of his novels is a nuanced, complex project, as he was deeply haunted by the fabric of religious upbringing which he had only partially disowned. Joyce's works as well as life reflect an ambiguous relationship to religious texts, themes, and institutions. A non-teleological concept of modernity is what is present in the works of Joyce especially in his novels, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Ulysses. Here, the secular and the religious exist in an intimately antinomian, mutually defining opposition in many aspects of cultural life, including literature. 2015 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bangalore), ISSN: 0253-7222. -
Customer preferences to select a restaurant through smart phone applications: An exploratory study
The increasing number of Smart Phone Applications (SPA) user and fast growing restaurant industry proves the great potential of using SPA as business marketing opportunity in Malaysia. The constant growth in mobile technology has created a prospect for the restaurant industry to use SPA as a restaurant promotion tool. The growing attention of use of SPA among the Malaysian customer, marketing research remains understudied in the field of SPA based restaurant promotion activities. The aim of this study is to explore the increase in customer acceptance to use SPA based restaurant promotion and to identify the customer preference to use SPA to select the restaurant. Thus, this paper mainly focuses on restaurant information on product and promotion as antecedents of customer acceptance of smart phone apps by underpinning the Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model. A conceptual model and hypotheses are tested with a sample of 116 students from a private university at Selangor district, Malaysia. The findings indicate that there is a positive relationship to increase customer acceptance level through SPA based restaurant product information and also strong relationship with the restaurant promotion information. It also indicates that customer acceptance of SPA through experience and satisfaction has a positive significant effect on customer preference to select a restaurant. Based on the results, this paper rounds off with conclusion, recommendations for future marketing research and provides a new marketing strategy to formulate among the restaurant business sector. 2015 American Scientific Publishers. All rights reserved. -
Folksonomy-based fuzzy user profiling for improved recommendations
Genre is a major factor influencing user decisions to peruse an item in domains such as movies, books etc. Recommender systems, generally have, at their disposal, information regarding genres/categories that a movie/book belongs to. However, the degree of membership of the objects in these categories is typically unavailable. Such information, if available, would provide a better description of items and consequently lead to quality recommendations. In this paper, we propose an approach to infer the degree of genre presence in a movie by examining the various tags conferred on them by various users. Tags are user-defined metadata for items and embed abundant information about various facets of user likes, their opinion on the quality and the type of object tagged. Leveraging on tags to guide the genre degree determination exploits crowd sourcing to enrich item content description. Fuzzy logic naturally models human logic allowing for the nuanced representation of features of objects and thus is utilized to derive such gradual representation as well as for modeling user profiles. To the best of our knowledge ours is one of the first approaches to utilize such folksonomy information to infer genre degrees subsequently used for recommendations. The proposed method has the twin advantages of utilizing enriched content information for recommendation as well as squeezing the information from the user-item-tag and user-item ratings spaces and condensing them into fuzzy user profiles. The fuzzy user and object representations are leveraged both for the design of content-based as well as collaborative recommender systems. Experimental evaluations establish the effectiveness of the proposed approaches as compared to other baselines. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. -
Zone based relative density feature extraction algorithm for unconstrained handwritten numeral recognition
The recognition of handwritten characters and numerals has been a challenging problem among the researchers for few decades. This paper proposes a relative density feature extraction algorithm for recognizing unconstrained single connected handwritten numerals independent of the languages. The proposed method consists of four phases, namely, image enhancement (dilation), representation (zone based), feature extraction (relative density) and recognition (minimum distance classifier). The handwritten numerals must be enhanced with dilation, in order to connect the broken digits. After enhancement, the dilated binary images can be represented as a mid-point aspect ratio class interval values. There can be M * N zones and subsequently there would be 2M*N relational density exist using mid-point aspect ratio class interval values. In order to minimize the number of features, a subset of W relative densities has been extracted from the binary image since the relative density is too large to be handled efficiently. The minimum distance classifier technique has been used to recognize the given numerals. The proposed algorithm would be an alternative to recognize the handwritten numerals for recognizing unconstrained single connected handwritten numerals. The method sounds promising with a recognition rate of 92.8567%. 2005 - 2014 JATIT & LLS. All rights reserved. -
Jurisprudential basis of the right to clean and healthy environment
Examining the basis of the right to a clean and healthy environment helps in an increased understanding of the nature of the right which in turn will further the job of devising effective strategies and policies to meet the interests of the environment and make the right a reality. This paper examines four strategies: Firstly protect environment rights by declaring it to be a right. This would protect it from mutilation at the hands of political processes, and thus would be a safer option, but its dimensions have not yet been crystallised. Secondly, it can be protected by making it part and parcel of human rights. Thirdly, the Interest Theory suggests that the interest of the environment must be protected for its own sake by creating such an interest. Fourthly, the notion of Intergenerational Responsibility which establishes that the present generation has an obligation/duty to preserve and protect the environment for a correlative similar right which the future generation enjoys. The article also examines the conflict between environment protection and developmental needs of humanity. Indian courts have referred to traditional Indian philosophy of 'Dharma' and have tried to adopt a balancing approach by integrating environment values with developmental values. Any theory that does not resolve the above conflict would clearly be insufficient. 2013 Journal of Dharma: Dharmaram Journal of Religions and Philosophies (DVK, Bangalore). -
Classification of supply chain knowledge: A morphological approach
Purpose The purpose of the article is to create a knowledge classification model that can be used by knowledge management (KM) practitioners for establishing a knowledge management framework (KMF) in a supply chain (SC) network. Epistemological and ontological aspects of knowledge have been examined. SC networks provide a more generic setting for managing knowledge due to the additional issues concerning flow of knowledge across the boundaries of organizations. Design/methodology/approach Morphological analysis has been used to build the knowledge classification model. Morphological approach is particularly useful in exploratory research on concepts/ entities having multiple dimensions. Knowledge itself has been shown in literature to have many characteristics, and the methodology used has enabled a comprehensive classification scheme based on such characteristics. Findings A single comprehensive classification model for knowledge that exists in SC networks has been proposed. Nine characteristics, each possessing two or more value options, have been finally included in the model. Research limitations/implications Knowledge characteristics have been mostly derived from past research with the exception of three which have been introduced without empirical evidence. Although the article is primarily about SC knowledge, the results are fairly generic. Practical implications The proposed model would be of use in developing KM policies, procedures and establishing knowledge management systems in SC networks. The model will cater to both system and people aspects of a KMF. Originality/value The proposed knowledge classification model based on morphological analysis fills a gap in a vital area of research in KM as well as SC management. No similar classification model of knowledge with all its dimensions has been found in literature. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. -
N?-[(1E)-1-(2-Fluorophenyl)ethylidene]pyridine-3-carbohydrazide
The title compound, C14H12FN3O, adopts an E conformation with respect to the azomethine double bond whereas the N and methyl C atoms are in a Z conformation with respect to the same bond. The ketonic O and azomethine N atoms are cis to each other. The non-planar molecule [the dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 7.44(11)] exists in an amido form with a C=O bond length of 1.221(2) In the crystal, a bifurcated N - H(O,N) hydrogen bond is formed between the amide H atom and the keto O and imine N atoms of an adjacent molecule, leading to the formation of chains propagating along the b-axis direction. Through a 180 rotation of the fluorophenyl ring, the F atom is disordered over two sites with an occupancy ratio of 0.632(4):0.368(4). Sreeja et al. 2014. -
Photovoltaic structures using thermally evaporated SnS and CdS thin films
Polycrystalline tin sulfide thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation technique.The films grown at substrate temperature of 300 C had an orthorhombic crystal structure with strong preferred orientation along (111) plane.Electrical resistivity of the deposited films was about 32.5 ? cm with a direct optical band gap of 1.33 eV.Carrier concentration and mobility of charge carriers estimated from the Hall measurement were found to be 6.24 1015 cm- 3 and 30.7 cm2V- 1 s- 1 respectively.Heterojunction solar cells were fabricated in superstrate configuration using thermally evaporated SnS as an absorber layer and CdS, In:CdS as window layer.The resistivity of pure CdS thin film of a thickness of 320 nm was about 1-2 ? cm and was reduced to 40 10- 3 ? cm upon indium doping.The fabricated solar cells were characterized using solar simulator.The solar cells with indium doped CdS window layer showed improved performance as compared to pure CdS window layer.The best device had a conversion efficiency of 0.4% and a fill factor of 33.5%. 2013 Elsevier B.V.All rights reserved. -
On the Temporal Causal Relationship Between Macroeconomic Variables: Empirical Evidence From India
The present study examines the dynamic interactions among macroeconomic variables such as real output, prices, money supply, interest rate (IR), and exchange rate (EXR) in India during the pre-economic crisis and economic crisis periods, using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test for cointegration, Johansen and Juselius multivariate cointegration test, Granger causality/Block exogeneity Wald test based on Vector Error Correction Model, variance decomposition analysis and impulse response functions. The empirical results reveal a stronger long-run bilateral relationship between real output, price level, IR, and EXR during the pre-crisis sample period. Moreover, the empirical results confirm a unidirectional short-run causality running from price level to EXR, IR to price level, and real output to money supply during the pre-crisis period. Also, it is evident from the test results that there exist short-run bidirectional relationships running between real output and EXR, price level and IR, and IR and EXR in the pre-crisis era, respectively. Most importantly, long-run bidirectional causality is found between real output, EXR, and IR during the economic crisis period. And the study results indicate short-run bidirectional causality between money supply and EXR, IR and price level, and IR and output in India during the crisis era. Also, a short-run unidirectional causality runs from prices to real output in the crisis period. The Author(s) 2014. -
Physical ageing in Se-Te-Sb glasses
Bulk Se60-xTe40Sbx glasses in the composition range 0?x?14 were prepared by the melt quenching method. Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) and thermal crystallization studies were performed to understand the thermodynamic property like glass transition and structural transformations. These glasses exhibit sharp endothermic peak at the glass transition (Tg). Disappearance of the endothermic peak at Tg in the rejuvenated samples clearly indicates the ageing effect in these glasses. Addition of Sb to Se-Te increases the connectivity of the structural network which is evidenced from the increase in Tg. A distinct change in the slope of the Tg at x=6, indicates a major change in the way the network is connected. The glass forming ability and the thermal stability also exhibit a maximum at x=6. Tg increases with the ageing time and the corresponding fictive temperature (Tf) calculated from the specific heat curves shows a decreasing trend. The molecular movements along the polymeric Se chains might cause the structural relaxation and the physical ageing. The physical ageing effect has been understood on the basis of the Bond Free Solid Angle (BFSA) model proposed by Kastner. Thermally crystallized samples show the formation of rhombohedral Sb2Te 3, rhombohedral Sb2Se3 and hexagonal Te phases. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. -
K-shell X-ray intensity ratios and vacancy transfer probabilities of Pt, Au, and Pb by a simple method
The K-shell X-ray intensity ratios, radiative and total vacancy transfer probablities of platinum, gold, and lead are measured by employing the 2?-geometrical configuration and a weak gamma source, a simple method proposed previously by our group. The targets of Pt, Au, and Pb were excited using ?-rays of weighted energy 123.6 keV from a weak 57Co source and the emitted K-shell X-rays were detected using an HPGe X-ray detector spectrometer coupled to a 16k multichannel analyzer. The measured values of these parameters are compared with the theoretical values and experimental data of other researchers, finding a good agreement. Thus, the 2?-geometrical configuration method with a weak gamma source can be alternative simple method to measure various atomic parameters in the field of X-ray spectroscopy. 2014, Pleiades Publishing, Inc. -
Moderating influence of critical psychological states on work engagement and personal outcomes in the telecom sector
Organizations want their employees to be engaged with their work, exhibiting proactive behavior, initiative, and responsibility for personal development. Existing literature has a dearth of studies that evaluate all the three key variables that lead to optimal employee performancecritical psychological states (CPSs), work engagement, and personal outcomes. The present study attempts to fill that gap by linking the variable CPSs (which measures experienced meaningfulness, responsibility, and knowledge of results) with the other two. The study surveyed 359 sales personnel in the Indian telecom industry and adopted standardized, valid, and reliable instruments to measure their work engagement, CPSs, and personal outcomes. Analysis was done using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings indicated that CPSs significantly moderate the relationship between personal outcomes and work engagement. The Author(s) 2014. -
Raman spectroscopy investigation of camphor Soot: Spectral analysis and structural information
Raman spectra of camphor soot has been investigated and optimised with a Raman microscope system operated at laser excitation wavelength of 514.5 nm. Several band combinations for spectral analysis have been tested, and a combination of three Lorentian bands ( G,D1,D2) at about 1580, 1350 and 1620 cm-1, respectively, with Gaussian-shaped band (D3) at 1500 cm-1and 1200 cm-1 (D4) was best suited for the first order spectra. The second-order spectra were best fitted with Lorentian shaped bands at about 2450, 2700, 2900 and 3250 cm-1. The results are discussed and compared with X-ray diifraction measurements and SEM analysis. The camphor soot shows ? and P{cyrillic} bands which reveals the presence of crystalline graphitic carbon. The SEM micrographs of camphor show the presence of carbon nanostructures. 2013 by ESG. -
Electrical and mechanical properties of vapour grown gallium monotelluride crystals
The physical vapour deposition (PVD) of gallium monotelluride (GaTe) in different crystalline habits was established in the growth ampoule, strongly depending on the temperature gradient. Proper control on the temperatures of source and growth zones in an indigenously fabricated dual zone furnace could yield the crystals in the form of whiskers and spherulites. Optical and electron microscopic images were examined to predict the growth mechanism of morphologies. The structural parameters of the grown spherulites were determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The stoichiometric composition of these crystals was confirmed using energy dispersive analysis by X-rays (EDAX). The type and nature of electrical conductivity were identified by the conventional hot probe and two probe methods, respectively. The mechanical parameters, such as Vickers microhardness, work hardening index, and yield strength, were deduced from microindentation measurements. The results show that the vapour grown p-GaTe crystals exhibit novel physical properties, which make them suitable for device applications. 2013 University of Science and Technology Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.