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Teaching as a political act: The role of critical pedagogical practices and curriculum
The present paper is an inquiry into the role of the teacher in the context of the dominant Indian value system, an imposed curriculum and teacher-students interactions from the social psychological and critical interdisciplinary perspectives. The role of the school in the present modernist worldview is to frame and impart knowledge which may lead to economic growth. In this context, the role of the teacher is observed as being limited to a bearer of information rather than a leader who visualizes change and develops critical ability among students. Based on the theoretical framework of postformalism and collective/social identity, the current work argues that the role of the teacher is not limited to passively following and communicating mainstream values but involves constructing a new participative identity through critical pedagogical engagement and by acting as an active agent of social change. Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences. -
Series solutions for an unsteady flow and heat transfer of a rotating dusty fluid with radiation effect
A theoretical analysis of free convective MHD flow of an unsteady rotating dusty fluid under the influence of hall current and radiation effect is carried out. The fluid flow is considered in the porous media under the influence of periodic pressure gradient and the fluid is assumed to be viscous, incompressible and electrically conducting with uniform distribution of dust particles. The governing partial differential equations are solved analytically using perturbation technique and the expressions for skin-friction is also derived. Further the effect of various pertinent parameter like magnetic parameter, rotation parameter and Hall current parameter on velocity of both fluid and dust phases are depicted graphically and the effect of radiation parameter, Grashof number and Prandtl number on temperature profile is also discussed in detail. 2017, Univerzita Komenskeho. All rights reserved. -
Total syntheses of Prelactone V and Prelactone B
The total syntheses of natural products Prelactone-V and Prelactone-B have been accomplished by a novel Chiron approach starting from D-glucose. The synthesis involves isopropylidene acetal formation of D-glucose using Poly(4-vinylpyridine) supported iodine as a catalyst, Tebbe olefination, Grignard reaction, Wittig olefination, selective mono deprotection of acetal using PMA/SiO2, hydrogenation and anti-1,3-diol formation are as key steps. 2017 -
Feature extraction of optical character recognition: Survey
Optical Character Recognition is still prevailing even after many decades of implementation. The challenges faced here are increasing day by day so as its applications. From Punched cards to Handwritten Text, from images to video, from uniform font to universal font, from English text to Global language, from researchers to visually handicapped are the transformations obtained from an era of the 1980s to 2010. This paper has covered the advancement of acknowledging the characters, how are features are extracted, various methodologies used and more importantly what is the use of OCR. Research India Publications. -
Nonlinear convective and radiated flow of tangent hyperbolic liquid due to stretched surface with convective condition
The current study compacts with effect of nonlinear convection and radiation on tangent hyperbolic fluid flow of through a convectively heated vertical surface. The converted set of boundary layer equations are solved numerically by Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method. The effect of various pertinent parameters on flow and heat transfer characteristics are discussed with tabulated numerical values and deliberate figures. Additionally, the skin friction coefficient and Nusselt number are also presented. We noticed that, the skin friction factor and heat transfer rates are higher in presence of nonlinear convection than its absence. Further, velocity profile decreases by increasing power law index but establishes opposite results for skin friction. 2017 -
Measuring Indian Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Bovidae) abundance at Basur Amruth Mahal Kaval Conservation Reserve, Chikkamagaluru, southern India
Grasslands are among the most critically endangered ecosystems in the tropics, but they are often treated as wastelands and conservation efforts are seldom directed towards these landscapes. The Blackbuck Antilope cervicapra is a large wild herbivore found in most grassland ecosystems across India. Despite their critical role in their trophic web, there are no reliable estimates of Blackbuck populations from their geographic range that takes detection probability into consideration. In this study, we conducted field surveys to estimate Blackbuck density in Basur Amruth Mahal Kaval Conservation (BAMKCR) with an area of 7.36km2 in southern India. We surveyed Blackbucks for a week in July 2014 along straight line transects between 09:00-12:00 hr and used the distance sampling approach to address the imperfect detection. A total of three transect lines of lengths 3.01km, 2.4km and 1.2km were sampled for seven temporal replicates. With an effort of 46.27km, 56 sightings of Blackbucks were recorded that was analyzed using the program DISTANCE. With a detection probability of 0.58 (0.053 SD) the estimated density of Blackbuck was 26.23 (6 SD) individuals/km2. The derived abundance estimate was 193 (c. 148-238) individuals in the study area. Our results show implications of a statistically robust design that accounts for imperfect detection. It provides an insight into a resident population of Blackbucks in a dynamic and fragile habitat. Blackbuck density estimate from this study sets the background for periodic monitoring of their populations, examination of the impacts of habitat modifications and gauge long-term viability of the grassland habitat in BAMKCR. Sagar & Antoney 2017. -
Understanding document semantics from summaries: A case study on Hindi texts
Summary of a document contains words that actually contribute to the semantics of the document. Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a mathematical model that is used to understand document semantics by deriving a semantic structure based on patterns of word correlations in the document. When using LSA to capture semantics from summaries, it is observed that LSA performs quite well despite being completely independent of any external sources of semantics. However, LSA can be remodeled to enhance its capability to analyze correlations within texts. By taking advantage of the model being language independent, this article presents two stages of LSA remodeling to understand document semantics in the Indian context, specifically from Hindi text summaries. One stage of remodeling is done by providing supplementary information, such as document category and domain information. The second stage of remodeling is done by using a supervised term weighting measure in the process. The remodeled LSA's performance is empirically evaluated in a document classification application by comparing the accuracies of classification to plain LSA. An improvement in the performance of LSA in the range of 4.7% to 6.2% is achieved from the remodel when compared to the plain model. The results suggest that summaries of documents efficiently capture the semantic structure of documents and is an alternative to full-length documents for understanding document semantics. 2016 ACM. -
Spectroscopic study of Be-shell stars: 4 Her and 88 Her
We present an optical spectroscopic study based on 41 spectra of 4 Her and 32 spectra of 88 Her, obtained over a period of 6 months. We estimate the rotational velocity of these stars from HeI lines in the blue spectral region (4000-4500 . We find that these stars are likely to be rotating at a fractional critical rotation of ?0.80. We measure the average I p/I c ratio to quantify the strength of the H? line and obtain 1.63 for 4 Her and 2.06 for 88 Her. The radius of the H? emission region is estimated to be Rd/R? ?5.0, assuming a Keplerian disk. These stars are thus found to be fast rotators with a relatively small H? emission region. We detect V/R variation of the H? spectral line during the observed period. We re-estimate the periods for both stars and obtain a period of ?46 d and its harmonic of 23.095 d for 4 Her, and a period of ?86 d for 88 Her. As these two cases are shell stars with binaries and have low H? EW with the emission region closer to the central star, the V/R variation and a change in period may be an effect of the binary on the circumstellar disk. 2016 National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing Ltd. -
Photophysical study of 6-amino-3-methyl-4-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,4-dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole-5-carbonitrile and estimation of ground-state and singlet excited-state dipole moments by solvatochromic approaches
An investigation of absorption and fluorescence behaviour of 6-amino-3-methyl-4-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,4-dihydropyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole-5-carbonitrile (NDPPC) at room temperature was carried out using a series of twelve organic solvents with different polarities. Ground and excited state dipole moments were determined experimentally by using LippertMataga polarity function, Bakhshiev solvent polarity parameter, Kawski-Chamma-Viallet solvent polarity parameter, Reichardt's microscopic solvent polarity parameter, Kamlet-Abboud-Taft multiple linear regression and Catalan dipolar polarizibility approach. Due to considerable ?- electron density redistribution, the value of excited state dipole moment was found to be greater than that of the ground state. The ground state dipole moment value was determined by quantum chemical method which was used to estimate excited state dipole moment using solvatochromic correlations. Both non-specific solute-solvent interactions and hydrogen bonding interactions were investigated by using Kamlet-Abboud-Taft and Catalan method. TD-DFT (B3LYP/6-311G (d,p)) was used for the determination of HOMO-LUMO energies. 2016 Elsevier B.V. -
Role of psychosocial factors in criminal behaviour in adults in India
Over the years, there has been a steady increase in the number of crimes committed annually in India (Snapshots, 2014). The purpose of this paper was to delve into the psychological and social factors that contribute to the development of criminal behaviour in the Indian context. For the current research, concurrent embedded mixed research design was used. Twenty individuals with a criminal record were selected using purposive sampling and twenty individuals with no criminal record were matched on the basis of age, gender and socio economic status. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire- Revised was administered on them. A semi structured interview delving into understanding the social factors that contributed to the criminal behaviour was taken for six individuals who have a criminal record. Results revealed that there was no significant difference in the personality traits of extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism and lie score between the two groups. However, various social factors like lack of social support, less emphasis on education and awareness, financial constraints and certain individual traits were found to be prevalent. Furthermore, an interactive effect of personality and environmental factors was established. A model was also proposed for providing interventions at an individual as well as societal level. 2017 International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences. -
Counselling and psychological wellbeing of people living with HIV in Kerala
There is a dearth in the documentation of the benefits of HIV-counseiling in India. This article deals with how HIV-counselling facilitates the psychological wellbeing of Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV) in Kerala, India. About 269 PLHIV participated in the study. Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Illness Perception Questionnaire and Psychological Wellbeing Scale were used. It was noticed that counselling did not impact the scores on subscales such as Timeline, Emotional Representation and Consequences, while the scores on Self-Acceptance and Autonomy did not differ even with counselling. Findings call for a reconsideration of the way HIV-counselling is provided. -
Study on radon concentration at the work places of Mysuru, Bengaluru and Kolar districts of Karnataka state, South India
Concentrations of radon, thoron and their progeny inside the working place depend on the activity of radionuclides in the soil, building materials, atmospheric conditions, construction of the building, type of work and ventilation condition. Radon is a radioactive noble gas, and it is emanated from 226Ra present in earth crest and building material. Based on the type of work, construction of the building and ventilation condition, concentrations of radon, thoron and their progeny have been measured in 60 workplaces at 10 locations of Mysuru, Bengaluru and Kolar districts of Karnataka state using Solid-State Nuclear Track Detector technique. From the study, variations of radon, thoron and their progeny have been observed with the nature of work. The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. -
Magneto-Thermo-Marangoni convective flow of Cu-H2O nanoliquid past an infinite disk with particle shape and exponential space based heat source effects
The exponential space dependent heat source (ESHS) process is utilized to explore the thermal transport characteristics of Marangoni convective flow in a Cu-H2O nanoliquid due to an infinite disk. Flow is driven by linear temperature. Five distinct nanoparticle shapes such as sphere, tetrahedron, column, hexahedron and lamina are accounted. Impacts of Joule heating, radiation and viscous dissipation are also retained. Hamilton-Crosser's expression is employed to deploy effective thermal conductivity of nanoliquid. Multi degree partial differential equations system is reduced by Km transformations and then solved via shooting method. It is figured out that the heat transfer rate is enhanced for stronger Marangoni convection and nanoparticle volume fraction. Also, shape of the nanoparticles significantly affects the flow fields. 2017 The Authors -
A Novel Dynamic Physical Layer Impairment-Aware Routing and Wavelength Assignment (PLI-RWA) Algorithm for Mixed Line Rate (MLR) Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) Optical Networks
The ever-increasing global Internet traffic will inevitably lead to a serious upgrade of the current optical networks' capacity. The legacy infrastructure can be enhanced not only by increasing the capacity but also by adopting advance modulation formats, having increased spectral efficiency at higher data rate. In a transparent mixed-line-rate (MLR) optical network, different line rates, on different wavelengths, can coexist on the same fiber. Migration to data rates higher than 10 Gbps requires the implementation of phase modulation schemes. However, the co-existing on-off keying (OOK) channels cause critical physical layer impairments (PLIs) to the phase modulated channels, mainly due to cross-phase modulation (XPM), which in turn limits the network's performance. In order to mitigate this effect, a more sophisticated PLI-Routing and Wavelength Assignment (PLI-RWA) scheme needs to be adopted. In this paper, we investigate the critical impairment for each data rate and the way it affects the quality of transmission (QoT). In view of the aforementioned, we present a novel dynamic PLI-RWA algorithm for MLR optical networks. The proposed algorithm is compared through simulations with the shortest path and minimum hop routing schemes. The simulation results show that performance of the proposed algorithm is better than the existing schemes. 2016 by De Gruyter. -
Effect of solvent polarity on the photophysical properties of chalcone derivatives
The absorption and fluorescence characteristics of (E)-3-(furan-2-yl)-1-(4-nitrophenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (FNPO), (E)-1-(4-aminophenyl)-3-(furan-2-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (AFPO) and (E)-3-(furan-2-yl)-1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-one (FHPO) were recorded in eighteen different solvents with increasing polarities at room temperature. The solvatochromic effects on absorption and fluorescence spectra have shown bathochromic shifts from non-polar to polar solvents for the reported molecules due to intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) interactions. It has indicated a large difference in dipole moment between electronically ground and excited states and the molecules were found to be more stabilized in singlet excited state than the ground state. The ground and excited state dipole moments of FNPO, AFPO and FHPO were determined experimentally by solvatochromic shift method using Bilot-Kawski, Lippert-Mataga, Bakhshiev, Kawski-Chamma-Viallet and Reichardt's microscopic solvent polarity functions. HOMO-LUMO energy values of FNPO, AFPO and FHPO were determined using cyclic voltammetry and compared with those values obtained by TD-DFT (B3LYP/6-311G(d,p)) method. 2017 The Royal Society of Chemistry. -
Partial slip and Joule heating on magnetohydrodynamic radiated flow of nanoliquid with dissipation and convective condition
Numerical investigation of three-dimensional flow of an electrically conducting nanofluid over a bidirectional stretching surface is proposed here. The slip flow over a convectively stretching sheet is considered. The flow is caused due to a non-linear stretching surface and Lorenz force. Water and copper nanoparticles are used to form nanoliquid. Suitable transformations are employed to reduce the conservation equations into nonlinear coupled, multidegree ordinary differential equations. Resultant nonlinear two-point boundary value problem is numerically integrated using Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg fourth-fifth order method. Computed results are verified with existing results under limiting cases. The influences of pertinent parameters on different flow fields are evaluated and presented via graphical and tabular form. It is found that the thermal radiation and convective heating at boundary stabilizes the thermal boundary layer growth. 2017 The Authors -
FRA-CDS-VDAX based credit crash model: A German conundrum
Often credit crash opens up the glaring research warts in finding credit pits. Robust German credit and interest rate derivative market have been under scrutiny to develop credit crash predictor by effective utilisation of a cobbled methodology encompassing various research tools (such as econometric, mathematical and machine-learning etc.) and the logical trio, namely forward rate agreement (FRA), credit default swap (CDS) and volatility index constructed on CBOE methodology (VDAX). Though setting up VDAX predictor is the first objective, yet the cross-dependence of various derivatives, threshold finding for sudden change (steep) in VDAX and linking the results with real life events remain the secondary objectives. The results point out a clear threshold for detecting credit pit and a prominent behavioural trace as well. Serials Publications Pvt. Ltd. -
Organic food products: A study on perceptions of indian consumers
Organic food products are popular across Europe and United States of America. Asia is not far behind with India being a prominent player. The concept of organic food products is not new to Indian farmers. However, there is not much of a consumption taking place domestically despite the fact that India is one of the top 10 players in the world when it comes to the number of farmers engaged in organic cultivation. This study was conducted to understand the factors of consumer perception towards organic food products. The study covered both primary investigation and secondary literature review. Data was collected with the help of a structured questionnaire and was analyzed using percentage analysis and factor analysis to identify the factors of consumer perception. -
Extraction and characterization of wrinkled graphene nanolayers from commercial graphite
A report on the synthesis of wrinkled graphene nano carbon from bulk graphite is presented here. The obtained graphene nano carbon comprises mixed phase, sp2-sp3 bonded disordered carbon network. The as synthesized samples were intercalated by Hummer's method and are separated by centrifugation and sonication to obtain few layer graphene sheets. The structural and chemical changes of the nanostructure was elucidated by Raman spectroscopy, XRD, SEM-EDS, XPS, FTIR and UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopy. Raman spectra confirmed the existence of highly graphitized amorphous carbon with five peaks in the deconvoluted first order Raman spectrum. The IR and XPS analysis confirms the incorporation of functional groups to graphitic basal plane. There was a shift in the peaks position and intensity with intercalation. The synthesized graphene sheet is found to be in the graphite to nanocrystalline graphitic trajectory. The SEM analysis revealed the formation of large area wrinkled graphene sheets. The nanostructure formed is effortlessly scalable and ideally suitable for nano carbon composites based nano electronic devices and switches. -
Synthesis and photophysical properties of a novel phthalimide derivative using solvatochromic shift method for the estimation of ground and singlet excited state dipole moments
A novel phthalimide derivative, 2-{4-[(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methyl]phenyl}-1Hisoindole-1,3(2H)-dione (TMPID) containing an isoindole moiety was synthesized by the cyclisation of 2-({4-[(1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)methyl]phenyl}carbamoyl)benzoic acid (TMPCB). The absorbance and fluorescence spectra of the derivative were recorded in fifteen different solvents to investigate their solvatochromic behaviour and dipole moments. Different solvent correlation methods, like the BilotKawski, LippertMataga, Bakhshiev, KawskiChammaViallet and Reichardt methods were employed to estimate the singlet excited and ground state dipole moments. Using multiple regression analysis, solute-solvent, specific and non-specific interactions were analyzed by means of Kamlet-Abboud-Taft and Catalan parameters. Computational studies were performed using time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) in order to calculate ground state dipole moment, atomic charges and frontier molecular orbital energies in solvent phase. Experimental and computational studies indicate that the singlet excited state dipole moment of TMPID is greater than the ground state dipole moment. The chemical stability of the derivative was determined by means of chemical hardness (?) using HOMOLUMO energies. From TD-DFT computational analysis, reactive centres in the molecule were evaluated based on molecular electrostatic potential (MESP) 3D plots. 2016 Elsevier B.V.