Browse Items (747 total)
Sort by:
-
A study on the capital structure and sources of finance of SMEs in India
Growth of the corporate sector is important in the process of economic development. Apart from big industries, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs from now on) also contribute to the expansion of the directly productive sector in the economy, generating tax revenue for the government, helping poverty reduction through fiscal transfers and creation of income from employment as well as ownership of firms. It is imperative for SMEs in developing countries to be able to finance their activities and grow over time if they are to play an increasing role in providing employment and income in terms of wages to households, profits, as well as dividends to investors. -
Effectiveness of emotion recognition training on social and emotional skills in young children with autism spectrum disorder
The rising prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders necessitates the determination of novel intervention methods for its management. Since deficits in social skills are one of the most prominent features in ASD, efficient interventions for improving social skills become necessary. Several studies suggest a strong relationship between emotional skills and the acquisition of social skills. Objectives: The objective of this study was to find out the effectiveness of emotion recognition training on the social and emotional skills of children with ASD by obtaining quantitative results from the participants after emotion recognition training and then following up in-depth through
a qualitative thematic analysis after interview with selected parents of the participants. Method: In the quantitative phase, a sample of ten children within three to six years of age who are diagnosed with ASD were selected for the study. The emotion recognition training followed the modified and adapted version of the hands-on activities from the ‘Let’s Face It’ curriculum which was validated after a pilot study. Each child was given 20 to 30 sessions of training. The participants were assessed for their social skills using VABS-3 and emotional skills were assessed using CDDC, before, during, and after the training. The qualitative phase involved an interview with the parent using a semi-structured guide. Results: The quantitative and qualitative results indicated that there is a significant difference in the social skills and emotional skills of the children after the training. The results also showed a sufficient generalization of the skills achieved. Incidental finding revealed reduction of problem behaviours. Conclusions: The study clearly shows that emotion recognition training is effective in improving social and emotional skills in children with ASD. -
Strategies to manage power outages and optimize energy cost for developing countries through supply and demand side management
Developing Countries like India, face huge amounts of power cuts starting from a few hours to few days. Some of the main reasons are transmission and distribution losses, theft, lack of smart infrastructure, poor maintenance of the existing systems, lack of smart algorithms etc., Due to this reason consumers have moved to back up systems to feed their loads. Tonnes of diesel has been consumed through generators, due to power cuts, because to this consumers are suffering to pay extra cost for electricity as their energy bills are an addition of grid cost as well as the back up cost.The load dispatch centers will implement load shedding leading to a compete outage in a few areas. As a result the consumers in these areas immediately turn on their back up sources leading to an increase in energy cost. There are no smart algorithms used either to distribute the power at the utility end or to manage the loads during an outage, especially when the loads are running on back-up supply. This report suggests some smart algorithms to provide partial power to consumers rather than a complete outage, load shifting techniques to the consumers at the time of an outage so that they can optimize their back up cost, last but not the least smart integration of solar power to the consumers to optimize the over all energy costs. -
Echo mapping of active galactic nuclei
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the persistent high luminosity sources powered by accretion of matter onto super massive black holes (SMBHs) at their centres. They are known to show flux variation and this property can be used as an effective tool to map the extent of the broad line region (BLR) and the dusty torus that surrounds the central SMBH. Though the mass of the SMBH (MBH) can be directly measured using the dynamics
of stars that are close to the SMBH, this method is limited to objects in the low redshift Universe (z < 0.1). On the other hand, the technique of reverberation mapping (RM) can provide MBH estimate over a range of redshifts. RM is based on the light travel time delayed response of the line emitting gas as well as the re-processed torus emission to changes in the continuum emission from the accretion disk. As of now, MBH measurements are available for more than 100 sources based on RM. The obtained
BLR sizes (RBLR) are found to be correlated with the optical luminosity (L5100) at wavelength 5100 Å. This relationship is obtained based on measurements of AGN available over a limited range of luminosity. Moreover, many of these measurements also have larger error bars. Therefore, there
is an urgent need to increase RM measurements with small errors on more AGN covering a wide range of redshifts to better constrain the RBLR − L5100 relation. -
A study of parenting behaviour and children's well-being in urban India families
The aim of the research is to study parenting behavior and children’s well-being in urban Indian families. Socialization, an important process in parent-child relationship is described as, ”the process by which a child or other novice acquires the knowledge, orientations, and practices that enable him / her to participate effectively and appropriately in the social life of a particular community” (Garret & Baquedano-Lopez, 2002, p. 339). Hence, socialization in the family is of crucial significance as it is the microcosm of society and has critical implications for the social and emotional development of the growing child. Parenting is a crucial process in family socialization. The word ‘parenting’ derives from the Latin verb ‘parere’ which means ‘to bring forth, develop or educate.’ Hoghughi, M. (2004) defines parenting as “purposive activities aimed at ensuring the survival and development of children.” It is of utmost importance to understand the dynamics of the parenting in varied cultures. -
Study of the diffuse ultraviolet background radiation at high galactic latitudes
The diffuse background radiation is observed throughout the whole sky and across every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum. The study of this background is of great importance as it contains photons coming from a variety of astrophysical environments, traveling over the time scales of a few hundred light years to the age of the universe itself. After the discover of the cosmic microwave background, the diffuse sky in all the other wavelengths was studied with great interest as the could provide useful insights into the formation history of the universe. -
Convective instability in a horizontal porous layer saturated with a chemically reacting viscoelastic fluid
The thesis is concerned with Rayleigh-Benard convection in a horizontal porous layer saturated with a viscoelastic fluid subject to a zero order exothermic chemical reaction. Modified Darcy law is employed to describe the fluid motion. The effect of viscoelasticity, chemical reaction, and rotation on the onset of convection is considered. The findings of the problems investigated in the thesis may prove useful in heat transfer application situations with viscoelastic fluids as working medium.