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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
Analysis of some important fluid flow problems using differential geometry based methods
In this thesis we have studies MHD and EMFD flow of viscous and inviscid fluid for different cases when magnetic field and velocity are variably or constantly inclined. In particular magnetic and velocity vector are orthogonal. The pattern of streamlines and magnetic lines are derived in every problem and the effect of density and magnetic permeability on the variation of pressure is studied. The problems studied in this thesis give further investigation on the analytical solution of magnetohydrodynamic and electromagnetic fluid dynamic flow. -
Self-care practices, professional quality of life and challenges: An exploration among counsellors in Kerala
The profession of counselling continues to prove its importance in today's fastpaced world, where pausing down and listening to someone are becoming an odd and luxurious concern of people. The counsellor may feel as though they are in a marathon, which demands them to continuously offer unconditional positive regard and empathy for their clients. This may leave them incapacitated to look into themselves and to recognize what is happening tothem in this process of caring for others. Though profound discourses take place in the international scenario about the criticality of rendering to the need and wellbeing of counsellors, evidence-based studies, and effective interventions in this regard are still lacking in the Indian context. This study seeks to fill this gap by exploring, how the positive and negative feelings of continuous caring can affect the professional quality of life of counsellors, what are the self-care mechanisms they adopt, and which are the professional issues they find most concerning. To meet these objectives, the present research employs a mixedmethod design in a sequential explanatory fashion. The study encompasses three different phases wherein phase I and II; the sample consisted of counsellors working in various government projects in Kerala selected through dense sampling method and purposive sampling method respectively. -
Optical and infrared studies of herbig Ae/Be stars
The work makes use of the unprecedented capability of the Gaia mission to study various properties of Herbig Ae/Be stars. We placed the Herbig Ae/Be stars in the Gaia color-magnitude diagram and accurately estimated their age and mass. The mass accretion rate is calculated from Hα line flux measurements of 106 HAeBe stars. The mass accretion rate is found to decay exponentially with the age of Herbig Ae/Be stars. Further, the immediate neighborhood of two Herbig Ae/Be stars, V1787 Ori and IL Cep, are studied using the astrometric and photometric data from the Gaia mission. We discovered a low mass binary companion to V1787 Ori using the analysis of distance and proper motion values from Gaia DR2. The mass ratio of the coeval binary system is found to be 0.23. Such a skewed mass ratio system is rarely identified in Herbig Ae/Be binary systems. The method of identification and characterization of the V1787 Ori wide binary system opens up the possibility of identifying more such systems. The HBe star IL Cep tells a much more complex story. The star is identified with a cluster of low mass stars associated with it. We identified 79 co-moving stars that are coeval to IL Cep, within 2 pc radius, from the analysis of Gaia EDR3 astrometry. The triggered star formation process called the "Rocket effect" caused by a massive star HD 216658 is identified to be the cause of the clustered star formation near IL Cep. The effect of this process is demonstrated for the first time using the proper motion data from Gaia. The immediate neighborhood of Herbig Ae/Be stars is identified as the formation region of long-chain carbon molecules such as Fullerenes and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. -
Classification of extragalactic point sources and flux variability characteristics of blazars
Classification of different types of astronomical objects in large surveys usually done through spectroscopy requires enormous amounts of time. Hence, many attempts have been made using broad band photometric magnitudes and spectroscopic observations to classify the sources, particularly extragalactic sources such as active galactic nuclei (AGNs), starburst galaxies and normal galaxies. However, a method which does not involve spectroscopic data would be ideal. -
Rayleigh-Benard and Benard-Marangoni convection in micropolar fluid
We study in this thesis, Rayleigh-Bernard and Bernard-Marangoni convection in a micropolar fluid. We study the effects of temperature modulation at the boundary and gravity modulation in the presence of porous medium. The effects of rotation and internal heat generation are also investigated and results are presented graphically and discussed qualitatively. -
Implementation of a speech recognizer and synthesizer for the physically challenged
Speech Recognition and Speech Synthesis are two complementary technologies that are used in systems to which the human voice serves as input or output. People with physical, motor disabilities prefer systems that can be driven by their voice than using the strenuous, usual and standard input-output devices such as keyboard, mouse and monitor. Solutions under the umbrella of “Assistive Technology” are designed to support people with disabilities to overcome the difficulties in handling their diurnal chores. Present-day commercial speech processing systems have received wider customer acceptance, yet not suitable for people with speech disabilities. It is observed that present-day speech recognizers fail to recognize voices with distortions, misrepresentations and deformations. The unintelligibility of the input voice limits the use of off-the-shelf speech processing products by the speech-impaired user community. In such scenarios, the speech processing systems require alterations to become suitable for the specialised user group. Techniques of adaptation are popular in the field of speaker recognition, which can be applied in the domain of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The main aim of this research is to model a speaker adaptive system for the speech-disabled users with articulation disorders and neurologically-based disorders due to illnesses like cerebral palsy. -
Study of buoyancy and surface tension driven convection in nanofluid
This thesis presents a detail study of linear and non-linear analysis of buoyancy and surface tension driven convection in nanofluid. The linear Rayleigh-Bernard / Rayleigh-Bernard Marangoni convection in nanofluids in the presence of external constraints like mangnetic feild, rotation and internal heat generation is investigated. -
Acculturation and adaptation experiences of third generation adolescent migrants of Andaman and Nicobar islands
Andaman and Nicobar Islands saw movement from 1857 amid the reformatory settlement design of the British Government followed by Independent relocation after 1947. The relocation makes a heritage of acculturation and adaptation experiences of the migrants and their descendants. The administration stretched out certain facilities to the migrants like job reservation, simple access to government jobs in the Islands, reservation for higher education and so forth amid the 50's, 60's and 70's. The number of inhabitants in the Islands has now come to a disturbing level and the facilities and opportunities have contracted down, yet individuals have not changed their outlook rather and for them, everything stays in and around the Islands. This study aims to understand the acculturation and adaptation experiences of the third generation adolescent migrants of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The study proposes to follow the methodology based on grounded theory. Using Theoretical sampling method, third generation adolescent migrants of the Islands were recruited for the study. The average age of the participants recruited for this study is 18.6 years with 83% of them are male and the remaining 17% are female. Individual interview sessions, lasting approximately 45 to 90 minutes were conducted with the participants to know how their acculturation and adaptation experiences. The transcripts of the interviews were thematically analyzed with the help of Nvivo 10. The transcripts were dissected and 1950 codes from 7903 text segments which became the main foundation for the analysis of data. The codes were further reduced into 54 basic themes, again into 21 organizing themes and finally into 05 global themes. The process of acculturation, psychological adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, influencing factors and academic aspiration were the global themes which became the building block for five thematic networks addressing the main and specific objectives of the study. -
Integrated intelligent framework for e-learning
E-learning is the primary method of learning for most learners after regular academics studies. Knowledge delivery through e-learning technologies increased exponentially over the years because of the advancement in internet and e-learning technologies. Knowledge delivery to some people would never
have been possible without the e-learning technologies. Most of the working professionals do focused studies for carrier advancement, promotion, or for improving domain knowledge. These learners can find many free e-learning web sites from the internet easily in the domain of interest. However, it is quite
difficult to find the best e-learning content suitable for their learning based on their domain knowledge level. Users spent most of the time figuring out the right content from a plethora of available content and end up learning nothing. A framework using machine learning algorithms with Random Forest Classifier
is proposed to address the issue, which classifies the e-learning content based on its difficulty levels and provides the learner the best content suitable based on the knowledge level. The framework is trained with the data set collected from
multiple popular e-learning web sites. The model is tested with real-time elearning web site links and found that the e-contents in the web sites are recommended to the user based on its difficult levels as beginner level, intermediate level, and advanced level.
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Influence of celebrity source credibility and celebrity-fan relationship on Fan's attitude towards social cause
Celebrities hold a special place in popular imagination. Their power to inspire fashion, choice of vacation, dictate food preferences and a host of other services is an interesting field of study. Over the years, celebrity endorsement has appeared as a leading advertisement format in developing successful brand campaigns. Celebrity endorsements are grounded on a common belief that endorsers can increase advertisement credibility thereby increasing brand image, awareness, and purchase behaviour. Understanding the nature of celebrities as sources in advertisements and promotions is a widely researched topic. There is an abundance of literature on the use of celebrities in commercial advertising with the end goal being sales and profits realised through intermediate outcomes such as brand image, attitude change, brand awareness and many others. Several celebrities across the world have endorsed social cause campaigns sponsored by governments and not-for-profit organizations. -
Meaning-making and psychological well-being of persons living with human immunodeficiency virus
being diagnosed with a life-threatening such as HIV or cancer can be often traumatic. It can also have other devastating impact on a person's life. Earlier researches on Persons Living with HIV (PLHIV) have found that HIV infection is a medical and existential crisis. PLHIV go through psychological trauma as well as social problems suck as depression, stigma,poverty and marginalization in India and elsewhere. -
Factors influencing family reintegration of children in conflict with law
The Children in Conflict with Law (CCL) is one of the two categories of children under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 (JJA, 2015). The behaviour formation of the CCL is significant because it could help the children: (a) from being a possible threat to society, and (b) being disciplined at all stages of their growth. The failure of behaviour correction of CCL may lead to severe recidivism, and can potentially
transform them into experienced criminals who would not be tolerated by any society. Reintegration of CCL back into their family is the best solution for the problem. The research “Factors influencing family reintegration of CCL” is an attempt to find the factors influencing these children, their family environment, and the society as a whole for reintegration. This fact-finding study has been completed with an explanatory sequential method in a mixed-research approach. The child offender’s demographic details, personality, family environment, social support, and protective factors were part of this research’s study. The data were collected both quantitativelyand qualitatively. The self-made interview schedules and a standardised tool of the Big Five Personality Inventory were used quantitatively. Case studies through indepth interviews and observations were applied qualitatively to collect data. Simple frequency analysis and cross-case study with thematic analysis have been used for analysing the data. Though many powerful social support systems like the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), Police and Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) supported the reintegration of CCL actively, the personality of the children and their family environment with its’ traditions had created adverse effects on the attempts towards reintegration.